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MEMORIAL RECORD 



NATION'S TRIBUTE 



TO 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



" THE ECHOES OF HIS FUNERAL KNELL VIBRATE THROUGH THE 
WORLD, AND THE FRIENDS OF FREEDOM OF EVERY TONGUE AND 
IN EVERY CLIME ARE HIS MOURNERS." — Bancroft on Pre&t. Lincoln. 



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„__ C ]M^ I L E D BY B :'^'^^^U ORRIS. 

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WASHINGTON, D. C. : 
W. H. & 0. H. MORRISON. 

1865. 



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Bntered according to Act of Congress, by W. H. & 0. H. Moerissn, in the Clerk's OfiBce of the 
District Court of the U. S. for the District of Columbia. 



STEREOTVPED Br M'SILL i WITHEROW, WASHINQTON, t. 0. 



THIS 

MEMORIAL TRIBUTE 

TO 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 

IS 

DEDICATED 

TO THE 

AMERICAN PEOPLE, 

AND TO THE 

i'KlENDS OF OUR COUNTRY, 

AND OF FREEDOM 

IN 

EVEEY CLIME. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The scenes recorded in this memorial volume form the most wonderful and 
instructive chapter in hiiman history. They vibrated mournfully through 
the sensibilities of every American heart, and through all the civilized and 
Christian nations of the world. It is, therefore, of the highest importance that 
their permanent record should possess the dignity and value of historic truth and 
accuracy. Such is this volume. 

In its preparation the design was to reproduce, in a condensed and connected 
form, from the public journals of Washington and of the cities through which 
the illustrious dead was conveyed to his burial place, the graphic pen-pictures 
painted by the accomplished reporters of the public press. Those who may 
recognize their special part in the scenes of the solemn drama will feel a grate- 
ful pleasure that they have assisted to weave a perennial wreath to lay upon 
the tomb of the honored dead, which will live forever in fragrant freshness, 
to bless the memory and exalt the virtues of Abeaham Lincoln, the martyred 
President of the United States. 

The record of the official action of the National Government, civil and mili- 
tary, and the tributes of the States, civic bodies, and foreign nations, form an 
interesting part of the volume. 

The labor of the compiler has been performed with much care, and it is 
a gratification to him to insert the following from eminent gentlemen, intimate 
friends of the late President, who examined the advance sheets : 

" Your work is accurate and complete. You have given to the American 
people a souvenir which, I am sure, they will fondly cherish. Your beautiful 
TEIEUTE will no doubt be highly appreciated by the national authorities, and 
especially by the Secretary of War, under whose immediate direction the fune- 
ral honors were paid to the illustrious deceased, and by whom nothing was 
omitted that could add to the dignity and solemnity of the memorable pa- 
geant." Another adds: "I regard the record as valuable and interesting for 
present and future ages." One of the private secretaries of the late President, 
who examined its pages in the Executive Mansion, wrote: " I am glad that 
this compilation has been made, and doubt not the above commendations are 
well deserved." 

The compiler has been a resident at the capital of the nation for more than 
three years past, v/itnessed the public acts and scenes of President Lincoln's 
administration, had several interesting interviews with him, and mingled in 
the solemn ceremonies of his funeral. 

Washington, D. C, Jvmc, 1865. 



MEMORABLE DAYS AND EVENTS PRECEDING 
THE PRESIDENT'S DEATH. 



Abraham Lincoln closed and crowned his illustrious life by 
a martyr's death, on the morning of the 15th of April, 1865. 
Preceding the tragical scene in which he passed from the 
highest seat of human power and grandeur to the grave, memo- 
rable events had transpired in the history of the country. The 
national Government, after four years of stern and fearful con- 
flict, was triumphant over a gigantic rebellion, and the nation 
was in the midst of scenes of universal rejoicings, when the 
sudden and startling death of President Lincoln spread like 
appalling darkness over all the land. The nation was bowed 
into the profoundest grief, and tears, like showers of rain, were 
the symbols of its sorrow. Tiie Republic loved him as its 
father, and honored and revered him as its preserver and 
saviour. 

His integrity, sagacity, unselfish patriotism, love of universal 
liberty, impartial justice, his honesty and fidelity, his magna- 
nimity and prudence, his moderation and sublime perseverance, 
his private virtues and eminent public services, his lofty courage 
and loftier faith in God and in the final triumph of right, and 
his wise and successful administration of the government, in 
the most critical and eventful period of its history, had secured 
to him the abiding confidence and afi"cction of the American 
people. He was re-elected to the Presidency in November, 
1864, by a popular vote, and in the Electoral College by ma- 
jorities unprecedented in the political history of tlie country, 
since the days of Washington. No man imagined what a hold 



he had upon the national heart until that election. The reve- 
lation of popular feeling was sublime and wonderful. It was 
a grand and spontaneous tribute to character, without a 
parallel in human history. 

HIS SECOND INAUGURATION 

Transpired on the Fourth of March, 1865. He stood on the 
eastern portico of the Capitol, and in the presence of many 
thousands of his fellow-citizens took the oath of office. At the 
request of Chief Justice Chase, who administered the oath, D. 
W. Middleton, Clerk of the Supreme Court of the United 
States, handed an open Bible to the President, who laid both 
his hands upon it, and slowly and solemnly repeated the words 
of the oath, first pronounced by the Chief Justice, viz : "I, 
Abraham Lincoln, do solemnly sioear that I loill faithfully exe- 
cute the office of President of the United States, and ivill to the 
best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution 
of the United States.'' " So heljJ me God." 

The President then reverently pressed his lips upon the sacred 
pages, and handed the Bible back to Mr. Middleton, who 
instantly marked the verses touched by the President's lips. 
On examination, he found them to be the 26th and 27th verses 
of the fifth chapter of Isaiah, commencing " And he will lift up an 
ensign to the nations," &c. The chapter has a peculiar fitness 
to the times, and contains in many of its declarations a pro- 
phetic description and doom of the leaders of the great rebel- 
lion, who have, verily, "called evil good and good evil," and 
" put darkness for light, and light for darkness." 

The Bible thus opened and used for the inauguration was 
handed to the wife of the President, who will doubtless pre- 
serve it as a sacred family memorial of that most solemn and 
impressive scene. 

The morning of the day on wliich he was inaugurated was 
overcast with leaden clouds, and nature wore a sombre hue. 
But at tlie moment tlie President began to pronounce liis ad- 
dress the clouds dispersed, and the sun came brightly out, as 
if to symbolize a peaceful and prosperous future to the Presi- 
dent and tlic Republic. 



In a calm and impressive manner he delivered his address, 
which was listened to with profound attention. It is his last 
official State paper addressed to his countrymen, and will now 
be read and admired with new interest by the American people 
and the christian nations of the earth. It is as follows : 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 

Fellow-Countrymen : At this second appearing to take the oath of the 
presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended address than there was 
at first. Then, a statement, somewhat in detail, of a course to be pursued, 
seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during 
which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and 
phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the 
energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of 
our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as 
to myself; and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. 
With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured. 

On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were anx- 
iously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it — all sought to avert 
it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted 
altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city 
seeking to destroy it without war — seeking to dissolve the Union and divide 
effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war ; but one of them would 
make war rather than let the nation survive ; and the other would accept war 
rather than let it perish. And the war came. 

One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed gene- 
rally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves 
constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest 
was, somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend 
this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, 
even by war ; while the government claimed no right to do more than to re- 
strict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war 
the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither an- 
ticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the con- 
flict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fun- 
damental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same 
God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that 
any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread 
from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not, that we be not 
judged. The prayers of both could not be answered — that of neither has been 
answered fully. The Almighty lias His own pui-poses. " Woe unto the world 
because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that 
man by whom the offence cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery 
is one of those offences which, in the Providence of God, must needs come, but 
which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, 



8 

and that He gives to both north and south this terrible war as the woe due to 
those by whom the offence came, shall we discern therein any departure from those 
divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? 
Fondly do we hope — fervently do we pray — that this mighty scourge of war 
may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the 
wealth piled by the bondman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil 
shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid 
by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still 
it must be said, " The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous alto- 
gether." 

With malice toward none ; with charity for all ; with firmness in the right, 
as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in ; 
to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the bat- 
tle, and for his widow and his orphan — to do all which may achieve and 
cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations. 

This address made a deep impression on the hearts of the 
American people and of England. The British Standard 
speaks of it as " the most remarkable thing of the sort ever 
pronounced by any President of the United States, from the first 
day until now. Its Alpha and its Omega is Almighty God, the 
God of justice and the Father of mercies, who is working out 
the purposes of his love. It is invested witli a dignity and 
pathos which lift it high above everything of the kind, whether 
in the Old World or the New. The whole thing puts us in 
mind of the best men of the English commonwealth ; there is 
in fact mucli of the old prophet about it." 

Mr. Gladstone, the ablest and most eloquent of living Eng- 
lish statesmen, said that Mr. Lincoln's address on his inaugura- 
tion showed a moral elevation which commanded tlie respect of 
every right feeling man. " I am taken captive by so striking 
an utterance as this. I see in it the effect of sharp trial, when 
rightly borne, to raise men to a higher level of thought and 
feeling than they could otherwise reach. It is by cruel suffer- 
ing that nations are born to a better life ; and to individuals, 
of course, a like experience produces a like result." 

In this country two leading journals, one political and the 
other religious, spoke of the inaugural address as follows : 

It is such a speech to the world as a Christian statesman would gladly have 
his last — earnest, humane, truly but not technically religious, filled with forgive- 
ness and good will. 



9 

When generations have passed away, and the unhappy wounds of this war 
are healed, and the whole nation is united on a basis of universal liberty, our 
posterity will read the dying words of the great Emancipator and leader of the 
people with new sympathy and reverence, thanking God that so honest and so 
pure a man, so true a friend of the oppressed, and so genuine a patriot, guided 
the nation in the time of its trial, and prepared the final triumph which he was 
never allowed to see. 

It is the most truthful, penitential, and Christian that a ruler ever addressed 
to his people. There is the clearest recognition of the divine will, the humblest 
prostration before his offended goodness, the amplest confession of the righteous- 
ness of his punishments, the largest beneficence to our malicious foes. 

That dying speech from the national throne will be read with wet eyes by 
our children's children. As the farewell address of Washington is still cherished 
by the nation, so will this pathetic confession of national sin and resolute purpose 
to labor for its extinction be admiringly perused by our latest generations. It 
lacks no element of perfection. So short that he that runs may read it ; so 
simple that the most childish can understand it; so statesmanlike in its enuncia- 
tion of principles that the rulers of the world can profitably study it; so 
religious that the most pious hearts can find in it holiest nutriment ; so philan- 
thropic that largest souls may grow larger in its inspiring air ; so clement that 
the hardest heart cannot but melt in its perusal — it is the consummate flower 
of Executive orations. 

In the evening of the inauguration day the President held 
the customary public reception. No President ever received a 
more popular and affectionate tribute of respect than did 
President Lincoln on that night. Foreign ministers, members 
of the Cabinet, members of Congress, Governors of States, and 
vast multitudes of his fellow-citizens, including representatives 
from the race he had emancipated, were present to pay their 
congratulations. The scenes of the day and evening had a 
cheering influence upon him, and girded him anew for the great 
work before liim. They were as borders of light to a dark 
and sudden night of sorrow to himself and the nation. 



VISIT OF THE PRESIDENT TO THE ARMY 

AND RICHMOND, AND HIS RETUEN. 



During the last week of March, 1865, President Lincoln 
made a visit to the Potomac Army, then before Richmond. It 
was on the eve of those successful movements which resulted 
in the fall of Riclimond and the surrender of the rebel ami}- 
under Lee. He held an important conference with Lieutenant 
General Grant, and Generals Sherman and Meade and other 
distinguished officers, and so hopeful was the military situa- 
tion that, on the 2d of April, he telegraphed to the Secretary 
of War that " all noiv looks liicjlily favoraUe;'' and again, on 
the same day, " cdl seems U'cU icith us.'^ On the evening of 
the 3d of April the President communicated to the War De- 
partment and the country that Petersburg and Richmond had 
fallen. 

On Monday, the 4th of April, he passed into the city of 
Richmond without any parade of triumph, attended only by a 
small guard, and received an enthusiastic welcome from the 
army and from a lai'ge portion of the citizens. While in Rich- 
mond he was waited upon by Judge Campbell, one of the lead- 
ers of the rebellion, and formerly a Judge of the Supreme Court 
of the United States, who said to the President : 

I had an interview 'with Jefferson Davis, Benjamin, and Breckinridge just be- 
fore they left, and said to them: " The military power of the Confederacy is 
broken. Its independence is hopeless. It only remains for us to make the 
best terms we can. The trouble is, the President of the United States cannot 
enter into negotiations with you ; but he does recognize the States, and can 
confer with their regular authorities. Under the doctrine of State rights, so 

11 



12 

universally held in the South, the troops from Virginia — the Confederate Gov- 
ernment being a fugitive — will recognize the right of the Virginia Legislature 
to control them." If you, Mr. Lincoln, will permit that body to convene, it 
will doubtless recall them from the field. 

Campbell's arguments for this course were many and specious. 
The President was actuated by his absorbing desire for peace 
to listen attentively; but he said : 

"Judge Campbell, let us have no misunderstanding. I will give you once 
more, in black and white, my only terms." 

And he immediately wrote the same propositions which Mr. 
Seward took from him to the Hampton Roads Conference : 

I. The territorial integrity of the Eepublic. 

II. No retraction of Executive or Congressional action on the subject of 
slavery. 

III. No armistice. 

To these he added a fourth condition, that if leading Con- 
federates still persisted in the war, now it had become so utterly 
hopeless, their property should be relentlessly confiscated. 

Campbell prayed for a modification of the third article, but 
the President was immovable. 

" "We will not negotiate with men as long as they are fighting against us. 
The last election established this as the deliberate determination of the coun- 
try." 

Remaining a day and night in Richmond, the President re- 
turned to City Point on Saturday, the 8th of April, and visited 
the hospitals, where he was received with joy and enthusiasm 
by the brave and invalid soldiers. On the evening of the same 
day he embarked for Washington, and arrived in excellent 
health and spirits, on the evening of the 9th of April. 

Among those significant things which often look like inspira- 
tions, that frequently attend the latter days of noted men, is 
an affecting fact, as is said, connected with the deceased Presi- 
dent, While on his recent trip to Richmond he amused him- 
self with reading Shakspeare, and often to the friends about 
him. It is a little strange that Mr. Lincoln, on one such occa- 
sion, should have twice read aloud and called the marked atten- 



13 



tion of those about him to the well-known linos which Macbeth, 
in his remorse, utters about the traitorously murdered Duncan : 



"Duncan is in his grave ; 
After life's fitful fever, he sleeps well ; 
Treason has done its worst; nor steel, nor poison, 
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing 
Can touch him further." 



" The very day after his return from Richmond," says Secre- 
tary Stanton, " I passed with him some of the happiest moments 
of my life; our hearts beat with exultation at the victories, 
because we believed they would bring the speedy return of an 
honorable peace, and the re-cstablishment of the authority of 
the Constitution and the laws over the whole United States." 

The five days preceding the President's death were memo- 
rable in the history of the nation. The successive, brilliant 
victories of the year in all parts of the country culminated in 
the fall of Richmond, and the surrender of the rebel army, 
with General Lee and officers, to Lieutenant General Grant. 
The joy of the people at these grand results was bound- 
less. In all the fulness and freshness of grateful, enthusiastic 
hearts, the people manifested their joy that the rebellion was 
at an end, and that peace and fraternal relations would soon 
be re-established among all the States. 

In commemoration of these great events, the cities, towns, 
and villages throughout the country were brilliantly illumin- 
ated, as symbols of the universal joy. Among the grandest of 
these scenes was the one at the Capital. Most of the private 
residences and all of the public buildings were beautifully illu- 
minated. Over the western portico of the magnificent Capitol 
was inscribed the motto, over which waved a beautiful banner, 
" This is the Lord's doing ; it is marvellous in our eyes ;^' and 
over the door of the State Department was read the following: 
" The Union saved by faith in the Constitution, faith in the 
people, and trust in God." 

After the President's return from Richmond a large assem- 
blage of citizens, desiring to congratulate him on these decisive 
and important results, met at the President's mansion on the 



14 

evening of the 11th of April, and from an upper window, now 
historic, he made the following 

ADDRESS : 

We meet this evening, not in sorrow, but in gladness of heart. The evacua- 
tion of Petersburg and Richmond, and the surrender of the principal insurgent 
army, gave hope of a righteous and speedy peace, whose joyous expression 
cannot be restrained. In the midst of this, however, He from whom all bless- 
ings flow must not be forgotten. A call for a national thanksgiving is being 
prepared, and will be duly promulgated. Nor must those whose harder part 
gives us the cause of rejoicing be overlooked. Their honors must not be par- 
celled out with others. I myself was near the front, and had the high pleasure 
of transmitting much of the good nevi^s to you ; but no part of the honor, for 
plan or execution, is mine. To General Grant, his skilful officers, and brave 
men, all belongs. The gallant navy stood ready, but was not in reach to take 
active part. 

By these recent successes the reinanguration of the national authority — recon- 
struction — which has had a large share of thought from the first, is pressed 
much more closely upon our attention. It is fraught with great difficulty. 
Unlike the case of a war between independent nations, there is no authorized 
organ for us to treat with. No one man has authority to give up the rebellion 
for any other man. We simply must begin with, and mould from, disorganized 
and discordant elements. Nor is it a small additional embarrassment that we, 
the loyal people, differ among ourselves as to the mode, manner, and measure 
of reconstruction. 

As a general rule, I abstain from reading the reports of attacks upon myself, 
wishing not to be provoked by that to which I cannot properly offer an answer. 
In spite of this precaution, however, it comes to my knowledge that I am much 
censured from some supposed agency in setting up and seeking to sustain the 
new State government of Louisiana. In this I have done just ^o much and no 
more than the public knows. 

In the annual message of December, 1863, and accompanying proclamation, 
I presented a plan of reconstruction, (as the phrase goes,) which I promised, if 
adopted by any State, should be acceptable to and sustained by the Executive 
Government of the nation. I distinctly stated that this was not the only plan 
which might possibly be acceptable ; and I also distinctly protested that the 
Executive claimed no right to say when or whether members should be admitted 
to seats in Congress from such States. This plan was, in advance, submitted 
to the then Cabinet, and distinctly approved by every member of it. One of them 
suggested that I should then and in that connection apply the Emancipation 
Proclamation to the heretofore excepted parts of Virginia and Louisiana ; that 
I should drop the suggestion about apprenticeship for freed people, and that I 
should omit the protest against my own power in regard to the admission of 
members of Congress ; but even he approved every part and parcel of the plan 
which has since been employed or touched by the action of Louisiana. The 
new constitution of Louisiana, declaring emancipation for the whole State, 



15 

practically applies the proclamation to the part previously excepted. It does 
not adopt apprenticeship for freed people, and it is silent, as it could not well 
be otherwise, about the admission of members to Congress. So that, as it ap- 
plies to Louisiana, every member of the Cabinet fully approved the pilan. The 
message went to Congress, and I received many commendations of the plan, 
written and verbal, and not a single objection to it from any professed Eman- 
cipationist came to my knowledge until after the news reached Washington that 
the people of Louisiana had begun to move in accordance with it. From about 
July, 1862, I had corresponded with different persons supposed to be interested, 
seeking a reconstruction of a State government for Louisiana. When the mes- 
sage of 1863, with the plan before mentioned, reached New Orleans, General 
Banks wrote me he was confident that the people, with his military co-opera- 
tion, would reconstruct, substantially, on that plan. I wrote him and some of 
them to try it. They tried it, and the result is known. 

Such only has been my agency in getting up the Louisiana government. As 
to sustaining it, my promise is out, as before stated. But, as bad promises are 
better broken than kept, I shall treat this as a bad promise, and break it when- 
ever I shall be convinced that keeping it is adverse to the public interest ; but 
I have not yet been so convinced. 

I have been shown a letter on this subject, supposed to be an able one, in 
which the writer expresses regret that my mind has not seemed to be definitely 
fixed on the question whether the seceded States, so called, are in the Union or 
out of it. It would, perhaps, add astonishment to his regret were he to learn 
that since I have found professed Union men endeavoring to make that ques- 
tion, I have purposely forborne any public expression upon it. As appears to 
me, that question has not been, nor yet is, a practically material one, and that 
any discussion of it, while it thus remains practically immaterial, could have no 
effect other than a mischievous one of dividing our friends. As yet, whatever 
it may hereafter become, that question is bad as the basis of a controversy, and 
good for nothing at all — a merely pernicious abstraction. We all agree that 
the seceded States, so called, are out of their proper practical relation with the 
Union ; and that the sole object of the government, civil and military, in regard 
to those States, is to again get them into that proper practical relation. I 
believe it is not only possible, but in fact easier to do this without deciding, or 
even considering, whether these States have ever been out of the Union, than 
with it. Finding themselves safely at home, it would be utterly immaterial 
whether they had ever been abroad. Let us all join in doing the acts necessary 
to restoring the proper practical relations between these States and the Union ; 
and each forever after innocently indulge his own opinion whether, in doing 
the acts, he brought the States from without into the Union, or only gave them 
proper assistance, they never having been out of it. 

The amount of constituency, so to speak, on which the new Louisiana govern- 
ment rests, would be more satisfactory to all if it contained fifty, thirty, or even 
twenty thousand, instead of only about twelve thousand, as it really does. It 
is also unsatisfactory to some, that the elective franchise is not given to the col- 
ored man. I would myself prefer that it were now conferred on the very in- 
telligent, and on those who serve our cause as soldiers. Still the question is 



16 

not whether the Louisiana governmeut, as it stands, is quite all that is desirable. 
The question is, " Will it be wiser to take it as it is, and help to improve it, or 
reject and disperse it ? Can Louisiana be brought into proper practical relation 
with the Union sooner by sustaining or by discarding her new State govern- 
ment?" 

Some twelve thousand voters in the heretofore slave State of Louisiana have 
sworn allegiance to the Union ; assumed to be the rightful political power of the 
State ; held elections ; organized a free government ; adopted a free State constitu- 
tion, giving the benefit of public schools equally to black and white, and empower- 
ing the Legislature to confer the elective franchise upon the colored man. Their 
Legislature has already voted to ratify the constitutional amendment, recently 
passed by Congress, abolishing slavery throughout the nation. These twelve 
thousand pers'ons are thus fully committed to the Union, and to perpetual free- 
dom in the States — committed to the very things, and nearly all the things, 
the nation wants — and they ask the nation's recognition and its assistance to 
make good that committal. 

Now, if we reject and spurn them, we do our utmost to disorganize and dis- 
perse them. We in effect say to the white man, " You are worthless, or worse ; 
we will neither help you nor be helped by you." To the blacks we say, " This 
cup of liberty which these, your old masters, hold to your lips, we will dash 
from you, and leave you to the chances of gathering the spilled and scattered 
contents, in some vague and undefined when, where, and how." If this course, 
discouraging and paralyzing both white and black, has any tendency to bring 
Louisiana into proper practical relations with the Union, I have, so far, been 
unable to perceive it. 

If, on the contrary, we recognize and sustain the new government of Louisi- 
ana, the converse of all this is made true. We encourage the hearts and nerve 
the arms of the twelve thousand to adhere to their work, and argue for it, and 
proselyte for it, and fight for it, and feed it, and grow it, and ripen it to a com- 
plete success. The colored man, too, seeing all united for him, is inspired Avith 
vigilance, and energy, and daring, to the same end. Grant that he desires the 
elective franchise. Will he not attain it sooner by saving the already advanced 
steps toward it than by running backward over them ? Concede that the new 
government of Louisiana is only to what it should be as the egg to the fowl; 
we shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing it. 

Again, if we reject Louisiana, we also reject our vote in favor of the pro- 
posed amendment to the national Constitution. To meet this proposition it 
has been argued that no more than three-fourths of those States which have 
not attempted secession are necessary to validly ratify the amendment. I do 
not commit myself against this, further than to say that such a ratification 
would be questionable, and sure to be persistently questioned ; while a ratifi- 
cation by three-fourths of all the States would be unquestioned and unques- 
tionable. 

I repeat the question : " Can Louisiana be brought into proper practical re- 
lation with the Union sooner by sustaining or by discarding her new State 
government?" Wliat has been said of Louisiana will apply generally to other 
States. And yet so great peculiarities pertain to each State ; and such impor- 



17 

tant and sudden changes occur in the same State ; and, withal, so new and un 
precedented is the whole case, that no exclusive and inflexible plan can safely 
be prescribed as to details and collaterals. Such exclusive and inflexible plan 
would surely become a new entanglement. Important principles may and must 
be inflexible. 

In the present situation, as tlio phrase goes, it may bo my duty to make some 
new announcement to the people of the South. I am considering, and shall 
not fail to act when satisfied that action will bo proper. 

The speech was applauded throughout by emphatic sentences 
and loud cheering;. 



THE PRESIDENT'S LAST DAY ON EARTH. 



The following incidents of the last day of the President's 
life have now a touching interest : 

IJis son, Captain Lincoln, breakfasted with him on Friday- 
morning, having just returned from the capitulation of Lee, and 
the President passed a happy hour listening to the details of 
that event. While at breakfast he learned that Speaker Colfax 
was in the house, and sent word that he wished to see him im- 
mediately in the reception room. He conversed with Mr. 
Colfax nearly an hour about his future policy as to the rebel- 
lion, which he was about to submit to the Cabinet. 

Afterward he had an interview with Mr. Hale, Minister to 
Spain, and several Senators and Representatives. 

At the meeting of the Cabinet, General Grant was present, 
and, in one of the most satisfactory and important Cabinet 
meetings held since his first inauguration, the future policy of 
the Administration was harmoniously and unanimously agreed 
on. When the members of the Cabinet separated, Secretary 
Stanton said he felt that the Government was stronger than at 
any previous period since the rebellion commenced. In the 
afternoon Mr. Lincoln had a long and pleasant interview with 
Governor Oglesby, Senator Yates, and other leading citizens 
of his State. 

In the evening Mr. Colfax called again, at his request, and 
Mr. Aslimun, of Massachusetts, who presided over the Chicago 
Convention of 1860, was present. To them he spoke of his 
visit to Richmond ; and when they stated that there was much 
uneasiness at the North while he was at the rebel capital, for 

19 



20 

fear some traitor might shoot him, he replied, jocularly, that 
" he ivould have been alarmed himself if any other perso7i had 
been President and gone there ; hut he, himself^ did not feel in 
any danger lohatever J^ 

Conversing on a matter of business with Mr. Ashmun, he 
made a remark at which he saw Mr. Ashmun was surprised, 
and immediately, with his well-known kindness of heart, said, 
" You did not understand me, Ashmun ; I did not mean what 
you inferred, and will take it all back, and apologize for it.'' 

He afterwards gave Mr. Ashmun a card to admit himself and 
friend early the next morning, to converse further about the 
matter — the last writing of his life ! 

Turning to Mr. Colfax, he said, " You are going with Mrs. 
Lincoln and me to the theatre, I hope ;" but Mr. Colfax had 
other engagements, expecting to leave the city the next morn- 
ing. He then said to Mr. Colfax, " Senator Sumner has the 
gavel of the Confederate Congress, which he got at Richmond, 
to hand to the Secretary of War ; but I insisted then that he 
must give it to you ; and you tell him for me to hand it over." 
Mr. Ashmun alluded to the gavel, which he still had, which 
he used at the Chicago Convention. The President and Mrs. 
Lincoln, who was also in tlie parlor, then rose to go to the thea- 
tre. It was half an hour after the time they had intended to 
start, and they spoke about waiting half an hour longer. The 
President went with reluctance, as General Grant, who had 
been advertised as well as himself to be present at the theatre, 
had gone north, and he did not wish the people to be disap- 
pointed. 

At the door he stopped and said, " Colfax, do not forget to 
tell the people in the mining regions, as you pass through them, 
what I told you this morning about their development when 
peace comes ; and I will telegraph you at San Francisco." He 
' shook hands with both gentlemen, with a pleasant good-bye, 
and left the Executive mansion, never to return to it alive. 

MR. Lincoln's last autograph. 

At eight o'clock on Friday night, Hon. George Ashmun 
called upon the President, and the latter, who was just starting 



21 

for the theatre, gave Mr. Ashmuu a card, upon which was 
written the following words : 

Allow Mr. Ashmun and friend to come in at 9 o'clock A. M. to-morrow. 

A. LINCOLN. 
April 14, 1865. 

His last public act was to call his Cabinet together, at 
which Secretary Stanton reports that the subject of the state 
of the country and the prospect of a speedy peace were dis- 
cussed. The President was cheerful and hopeful, and spoke 
very kindly of General Lee and otliers of the Confederacy, and 
of the establishment of "■overnment in Yirc;inia. 



THREATS OF ASSASSINATION. 



After Mr. Lincoln's election in 1861, private and public 
threats were made in diflFerent States of the South that he 
should not be permitted to take his seat as President. In Bal- 
timore a plot was discovered to assassinate him as he came 
througli on his way to "Washington to be inaugurated. He ar- 
rived in safety at the capital on the 23d of February, 1861, 
and on the 4th of March was inaugurated the sixteenth Presi- 
dent of the United States. 

On the day before his inauguration, Lieutenant General 
Scott wrote to Mr. Seward as follows : "He hoped in a day or 
two the new President will have happily passed all personal 
danger, and find himself installed an honored successor of the 
great Washington." The day of the inauguration, military 
precautions were taken to prevent and suppress all attempts at 
violence, and the President was safely and constitutionally in- 
ducted into his office. 

The following statement is from Mr. Richardson, on the 
southern threats of assassination. He was a correspondent of 
a leading paper, and was a prisoner in the South for eighteen 
months : 

On the day of Mr. Lincoln's first inauguration, I travelled in a crowded rail- 
way car in Mississippi and Louisiana. While the train was stopping and con- 
versation could be heard through the carriage, some one alluded to the event. 
Another passenger replied : " I hope to God he will be killed before ho takes the 
oath." A third said: "I have wagered a new hat that neither he nor Hamlin 
will ever live to be inaugurated." Nearly all present belonged to the educated, 
wealthy, slaveholding class — the class which originated and conducted the war. 
Several expressed approval of these remarks ; not one uttered a word of dissent. 

23 



24 

I was in the cotton States for weeks after this, and the subject was frequently 
alluded to in my presence. I heard but one man condemn the proposed assas- 
sination, and he was a Unionist. Again and again leading journals, which 
were called reputable, asked, " Is there no Brutus to rid the world of this 
tyrant?" Rewards were openly proposed for the President's head. If Mr. 
Lincoln had then been murdered in Baltimore, every thorough secession journal 
in the South would have expressed its approval, directly or indirectly. Of 
course, I do not believe that the masses, or all secessionists, would have desired 
such a stain upon the American name ; but even then, as afterward, when they 
murdered our captured soldiers, and starved, froze, and shot our prisoners, the 
men who led and controlled the rebels appeared deaf to humanity and to 
decency. Charity would fain hold them insane ; but there was too ranch 
method in their madness. 

In the month of March, 1864, a correspondent of the same 
journal, who had been at Richmond, says that " a plan had 
been submitted to the Rebel War Department by Colonel 
Margrave, who had been for a considerable time an emissary 
in the North, to kidnap President Lincoln and carry him to 
Richmond, or if it should be found impossible to escape with 
him to the rebel lines, to assassinate him. One hundred and 
fifty picked men were to go secretly North, and take quarters 
in Washington, Georgetown, Baltimore, and Alexandria, so as 
to be able to communicate daily with each other ; and upon a 
day fixed by their leader, were to assemble in Washington for 
the purpose of making tlie seizure. The President, it was 
claimed, could be easily seized at a quiet hour at the White 
House, or in going to or returning from church. The Secre- 
tary of War thought this scheme might succeed, but ho doubted 
whether such a proceeding would be of a military character, 
and JHstifiablo under the laws of war. He promised, however, 
to consult President Davis and Mr. Benjamin," 

In the summer of 1862, "a club or society of wealthy per- 
sons of Richmond was formed for the purpose of raising a fund 
for this purpose. Circulars were sent to trust-worthy citizens 
of every other city and town in the Confederacy inviting co- 
operation in the grand undertaking, and an immense sum of 
money was raised. It was proposed, when all was ready, to 
obtain a furlough for Moseby and make him leader of the en- 
terprise." 
Mr. Carpenter, the artist who painted the Proclamation of 



25 

Freedom, says that several days subsequenL to its publication 
he asked Mr. Lincoln if he had seen the above statement. He 
said he had not, nor even heard of it. I then, at his request, 
gave him the details. We were walking together at the time, 
and I remember distinctly the conversation. After I liad con- 
cluded, he smiled incredulously, and said : " Well, even if true. 
I do not see what the rebels would gain by either killing or 
getting possession of me. I am but a single individual, and it 
would not help their cause or make the least difference in the 
progress of the war. Everything would go right on just the same. 
Soon after I was nominated at Chicago," he continued, " I be- 
gan to receive letters threatening my life. The first one or 
two made me uncomfortable, but I came at length to look for 
a regular installment of this kind of correspondence in every 
week's mail, and up to inauguration day I was in the constant 
receipt of such letters, and it is no uncommon thing even to re- 
ceive them now ; but they have ceased to give me any appre- 
hension." I expressed some surprise at this, but he replied in 
his peculiar way, " There is nothing like getting used to 
things." Alas! that llie nation should to-day be sitting under 
the shadow of the great crime — the consummation of those very 
threats — which he had come to regard so lightly. 

Roger A. Pryor, a member from Virginia in the Thirty-Sixlii 
Congress, and for some time editor of the Daihj Union in 
Washington city, said shortly before Mr. Lincoln's election in 
1860, that. "The first anti-slavery President iciU he assassin- 
ated; and if no other hand can be found to perform tliat duty, 
I will be the Brutus that will plant a dagger in hi.-^ heart." 

In December. 1864, a citizen of Alabama advertised in the 
Southern papers tliat, " If the citizens of the Southern Con- 
federacy will furnish me (him) with tlie cash, or good securities, 
for the sum of one million dollars, I (lie) will cause the lives of 
Abraham Lincoln. William II. Seward, and Andrew Johnson 
to be taken by the lirst of March next."— 1865. 

Colonel R. W. Thompson, of Terre Haute, Indiana, an old 
friend of ilr. Lincoln, feeling a great concern for his safety, on 
the 11th of last March wrote to John D. Defrees, Superin- 



26 

tendent of Public Printing at Washington, whom he knew to 
be on intimate terms with the President, as follows : 

For God's sake impress Mr. Lincoln v/itli the idea that he must be careful of 
himself and watchful. There ai-e ten thousand ways to kill him, and there are 
thousands malicious enough to do it- A hired domestic could do it; and how fre- 
quently does history show that this mode of getting rid of a man has been 
practiced. 

Only a few days before the President went to Richmond, Mr. 
Defrees read him the letter of Colonel Thompson, and added 
l)is own apprehensions of danger from exposure. The Presi- 
dent replied that he thought his friends too apprehensive — that 
he had no feelings of the sort. 

One day last summer, in conversation with Mr. Defrees, who 
had cautioned him against exposing himself to the assassin by 
his going to and returning from the Soldiers' Home, he re- 
marked that he had received many anonymous letters threaten- 
ing his life, and that he had preserved them. He then walked 
to liis private cabinet and took down a bundle of such letters. 
While he held them in his liand Mr. Seward came in, and, after 
understanding the subject of conversation, remarked that he 
too had received many such letters for years, and especially 
from the South, while a member of the Senate. 

The possibility tl)at he might be assassinated Mr. Lincoln 
had thought of, though he was not timid, and it did not give 
him a moment's uneasiness. A member of the Cabinet said 
one day to him, " Mr. Lincoln, you are not sufficiently careful 
of yourself. There are bad men in Washington ; did it ever 
occur to you that there are rebels among us who are bad enough 
to attempt your life?" Mr. Lincoln stepped to the desk and 
drew from a pigeon-hole a package of letters. " There," said 
he, " every one of these contain a threat to assassinate me. I 
might be nervous if I was to dwell upon the subject, but I have 
come to the conclusion that there are opportunities to kill me 
every day of my life if there are persons disposed to do it. It 
is not possible to avoid exposure to such a state, and I shall 
not trouble myself about it." 

A week before his death, General Van Allen, of New York. 



27 

wrote to the President to ask him not to expose his life unneces- 
sarily, as he had done at Richmond, and assuring him of the 
earnest desire of all his countrymen to close the war he had so 
successfully conducted. After acknowledging the receipt of 
the letter, the President replied, April 14th, the day of his 
death, and said : 

I intend to adopt the advice of my friends and use due precaution. * * * I 
thank you for the assurance you gave me that I shall be supported by conser- 
vative men like yourself, in the efforts I may make to restore the Union, so as to 
make it, to use your language, a Union of hearts and hands as well as of States. 
Yours, truly, 

A. LINCOLN. 
To General Van Allen. 



THE ASSASSINATION OF THE PRESIDENT, 

AND 

TEE PRESIDENT'S DYING SCENE. 



On Friday night, tlie fourteenth of April, 1865, President 
Lincoln "was assassinated, under the most atrocious and appal- 
ling circumstances. The day that shrouded the nation in 
mourning was commemorative of the most significant celebra- 
tion of the century. The flag of the nation had been stricken 
down by traitors from the battlements of Fort Sumter on the 
14th of April, 1861 ; and on the same day of the month, 1865, 
that same flag, under the direction of the Government, and 
with military and religious ceremonies and rejoicings, was 
again unfurled over the fort, as the emblem of the restored 
sovereignty of the nation. 

Rev. Henry Ward Beecher was invited by the President 
and Secretary of War to deliver an oration on the occasion. 
This duty he performed, and at the close of his address he re- 
ferred to the President in these words : 

From this pulpit of broken stones we speak forth our earnest greeting to all 
our land. 

We offer to the President of the United States our solemn congratulations 
that God has sustained his life and health under the unparalleled burdens and 
sufferings of four bloody years, and permitted him to behold this auspicious 
consummation of that national unity for which he has waited with so much 
patience and fortitude, and for which he has labored with such disinterested 
wisdom. 

These words of greeting had scarcely passed beyond the 
limits of the memorable spot where they were uttered ere tlie 

29 



30 

fatal bullet of the assassin had pierced the life of the Presi- 
dent, and the nation's joy turned suddenly into a night of deep- 
est sorrow, which rolled as the tides of the ocean over the 
country and the continent. 

VISIT TO THE THEATRE. 

It was announced in the papers of the morning of the 14th 
of April, that President Lincoln and Lieutenant General 
Grant would be in attendance at Ford's theatre on that even- 
ing. General Grant was not present, and the President, in 
the kindness of his heart, not wishing to disappoint the peo- 
ple, reluctantly went. 

At half-past eight o'clock, Mr. Lincoln, accompanied by Mrs. 
Lincoln, Miss Harris, and Major Rathbone, entered the theatre. 
The play, Taylor's "American Cousin," was "going smoothly." 
Dundreary was telling why a dog wags his tail, and the enthu- 
siastic reception of Mr. Lincoln drowned the point of Dun- 
dreary's conundrum. When he reached the door of the private 
box, the President turned and bowed in acknowledgment of 
the greeting, and then followed Mrs. Lincoln into the box. 

The President, as usual with him, had no guard, save that 
which perhaps in his greatness of heart he deemed all sufficient — 
a consciousness of duty well discharged, a feeling of love and 
charity to all mankind, which, innocent of hate itself, feared it 
not in others. 

The box occupied by the presidential party consisted of the 
two upper boxes on the right hand side of the audience, which, 
by the removal of a partition, had been thrown into one. In 
the corner nearest the stage sat Miss Harris, in an arm-chair ; 
next her sat Mrs. Lincoln, on a cane-bottomed chair, at a dis- 
tance of some four feet from Miss Harris ; while in the corner 
furthest from the stage sat the President. Major Rathbone sat 
on a velvet-covered sofa in the back part of the box. 

The box was decorated with the flag he loved so well, hang- 
ing around him and his friends in graceful festoons, relieved by 
a back ground of lace. Where the flags met, an engraving of 
Washington in a gilt frame was placed. The interior of the 
box was lined with crimson velvet paper, and had then no other 



31 

ornaments than the stripes and stars the flags afforded. Abra- 
ham Lincoln was not the man to wish for any other when they 
were present. 

This box was furnished with one sofa of crimson Vi3lvet, and 
three arm-chairs similarly covered. Besides these there were 
six cane-bottomed chairs, and nothing more. 

The box has two entrances, consisting of doors leading from 
the dress-circle. The only one used on the night of the mur- 
der was that which, when closed, offers a surface parallel to 
that of the scenes on the stage. The other door, which was 
locked, stands at right angles with the former. 

It having been advertised that the receipts of the night were 
for the benefit of Miss Laura Keene, and the expected presence 
of President Lincoln and General Grant, the attendance was 
both large and fashionable. The parquette was full ; the dress 
circle nearly so. 

Mrs. Lincoln, during the performance of the first two acts, 
seemed much to enjoy the eccentricities of Trenchard and the 
oddities of Dundreary, her hand resting upon her husband's 
knee, his left arm on the balustrade of the box, and only his 
left profile visible to the audience. 

All went as smoothly behind as before the scenes, the pres- 
ence of the President awaking emulation among the people of 
the company. Towards the beginning of the second scene of 
the third act, John Wilkes Booth, son of the celebrated actor 
of the same name, visited this exclusive domain, to which his 
profession of actor was an open sesame. He entered by the 
back door of the theatre, and left very soon, leaving that back 
door open. He had evidently ridden to the theatre, for ere 
entering he left his horse in the alley. 

The comedy is in its third act, in the second scene of it. 
Madame Mouutchessington has left the stage to Asa Trench- 
ard, with the remark : 

" You don't understand the manners of good society. That 
alone can excuse the impertinence of Avhich you arc guilty." 

Trenchard answers, " I guess I know euougli to turn you in- 
side out ;" and the audience clap their hands and laugh in glee. 
Mrs. Lincoln joins in the laugh — a pistol shot, sharp and clear, 
is heard. The words Sic semper tyrannis are whispered — " Re- 



32 

venge for the SouW^ is added, a white face "covered witli a 
niglit of hair," lighted by two blaclv, shining eyes, is seen be- 
tween the President's box and tlie stage ; a moment passes ; it 
drops. A form crouches as it falls, then rises in histrionic at- 
titude, in its hand a knife, whose newly polished surface reflects 
the numerous gas jets. Three seconds— nay. two — and it is 
gone. 

Still as the hush that follows a prayer in the chamber of the 
dying, the audience sit spell-bound, it may have been, for two 
seconds ; a tall man jumps upon the stage, and he too disap- 
peared, while a voice in the audience at last utters the name 
of the assassin — " John Wilkes Booth." 

Booth, after his visit behind the scenes, having left the back 
door open, rapidly went to the front of the theatre, ascended 
into the dress circle, passed by the only open door into the box, 
advanced to the front of it, and leaning over, with the elbow of 
his right arm out of the box, his left hand on ^le balustrade, 
fired a pistol at the President. This pistol, a Derringer, was 
evidently loaded with two (perhaps with more than two) balls, 
of diameter less than that of the pistol barrel. One of these 
balls struck the President below the left ear, and two inches 
behind it. The other did not hit him, but went through the 
locked and unused door of the box, scattering splinters outside 
(not inside) the box. Having fired. Booth dropped the pistol 
and drew a long knife, sharpened like the sword of a Roman 
gladiator, a regular stylus in form, but rounded, not angled, to 
a point. He vaulted over the balustrade of the box, his left 
hand supporting his weight, and breaking his fall by its hold 
on it. The distance from that balustrade to the floor of the 
theatre is exactly twelve feet and eight inches. The exclama- 
tion, " Sic semper tyraomis," was uttered as he vaulted out of 
the box, and as he recovered his feet on alighting, he said some- 
thing of which we could only gather four words, '" Revenge for 
the South." He then in a stilted, stagey, yet rapid stride, his 
white face turned toward the awe-stricken audience, gained the 
first stage entrance, pushed aside Miss Laura Keene, there 
awaiting her cue to enter upon the scene, and with the glitter- 
ing stylus still in his hand, pushed on by the prompter's desk, 
turned to the right, and by none of the audience was again 



33 

seen. Fifteen seconds will cover the time between the explo- 
sion of the pistol and Booth's disappearance. The distance he 
had to i?o across the stage was exactly thirty-nine feet. After 
turning to the right and leaving the prompter's desk behind 
him, he was in a sort of alley-way or lane, formed by the ends 
of the scenery and the wall of the theatre. This alley-way is 
only twenty-five feet long from the first entrance, and at the 
end of it stands the open back door at which the horse awaited 
the man whose chivalry could induce him to murder, but could 
never summon courage to fight in the ranks of his brother 
rebels. The whole distance, therefore, from the foot of the 
box, where lay the bleeding sacrifice of his hate, to the horse 
on which he was to flee, was only sixty-four feet. That time 
was afforded him to pass over this short distance, by the stupor 
into which surprise and horror had thrown the audience, cannot 
be wondered at. The knife he held, it is claimed, secured him 
from " let or stop " by a scene-shifter, who strove by passing 
through the entrances to intercept him' As he passed out, he 
met the leader of the orchestra, William Withers, Jr., and 
made two cuts at him, spoiling his coat, but not at all injuring 
his person. To mount his horse, and run from the scene of his 
crime, was easy ; but what horse will ever enable him to out- 
strip the memory of that deed ? Out he rode into the night ; 
but what night will he ever find dark enough to hide from the 
eyes of his soul the gaze of stony horror fixed upon him by the 
forest of white faces he glared upon as he crossed that stage ? 

But one attempt was made to pursue the flying coward. 
Joseph B. Stewart, Esq., a well-known counsellor of our city, 
jumped upon the stage, and did not lose siglit of him till he 
mounted and rode off ; but this he succeeded in doing ere Mr. 
Stewart could reach him. Unfortunately, Mr. Stewart was not 
armed. 

The audience were not at all alarmed by the report of the 
pistol in the box. It was supposed by most to be part of the 
business of the piece ; and it was not till the marble face and 
gleaming dagger were seen descending from the box that a sus- 
picion of the truth flashed upon them. When BoO'th was named 
as the man, some few cries of " Hang him !" were raised ; but 
though the audience left their feet, they seemed bereft not only 



34 

of all power of action, but even all power of thought. A 
vacant, doubting look was stamped upon each face ; and it was 
not till Miss Harris called to Miss Keene for some water, and 
a few gentlemen had ascended the stage, that the mind of the 
audience seemed to take in understandingly the deed, and 
all the horror of the deed they had witnessed. They swayed 
back and forth, indignation and menace succeeding to irresolu- 
tion, till the amphitheatre, like the gates of Eden, seemed 
"with fiery faces thronged." All spoke, but no one said any- 
thing. Exclamation followed exclamation, till at last Miss 
Keene stepped forth, and waving her arm, besought them to 
be calm and retain their seats. At last, on repeated requests 
to leave the theatre, made by several gentlemen, the audience 
rolled, rather than walked out, leaving the theatre, in which 
they had witnessed a tragedy unequalled in atrocity or magni- 
tude of consequences since the murder of the first Cassar. 

While Mr. Stewart was pursuing the assassin and the audi- 
ence were striving to recover their senses, Mr. Lincoln lay 
bleeding up stairs. There is but one word that can describe 
the state of tliosein the box with him — paralysis. Miss Harris 
recovered first, and called to Miss Keene for some water ; a 
gentleman, aided by the former, climbed into the box. A gen- 
tleman at last brought a pitcher of water. Several others 
also ascended into the box, as the house was being emptied. 

At last medical aid arrived ; the throbbing crowd outside 
was forced back, the street was picketed, and one hour later 
the doctors had the suffering form transferred to the house of 
Mr. Peterson, opposite the theatre. 

The President was soon surrounded by all the members of 
his Cabinet, except Mr. Seward, who was then lying in bed, 
scarce better than the chief who had so valued his counsels, so 
trusted his sagacity. But, alas ! while the minister heard in 
this world that the President was murdered, the President 
never knew on earth that the life of his friend was threatened 
and attacked with his own. 

Besides the members of the Cabinet, Mrs. Lincoln, Miss Har- 
ris, Major Rathbone, and the leading medical men of the army 
now in Washington, and several eminent doctors, Mrs. Senator 
Dixon was sent for by Mrs. Lincoln, and remained with her 



35 

through the bitter hours of the solemu night. Mrs. and Miss 
Kinney were also present, offering those consolations with 
which one liuman heart so vainly yearns to lighten the burden 
of sorrow piled upon another. 

Mrs. Lincoln was under great excitement and agony, wring- 
ing her hands, and exclaiming, " Why did he not shoot me in- 
stead of my husband ? I have tried to be so careful of him, 
fearing something would happen, and his life seemed to be 
more precious now than ever. I must go with him ;" and other 
expressions of like character. She was constantly going back 
and forth to the bedside of the President, exclaiming in great 
agony, " How can it be so ?" The scene was heartrending, 
and it is impossible to portray it in its living light. It beggars 
description, and can better be imagined than described. Cap- 
tain Robert Lincoln bore himself with great firmness, and 
constantly endeavored to assuage the grief of his mother by 
telling her to put her trust in God and all would be well. Oc- 
casionally, being entirely overcome, he would retire into the 
hall and give vent to most heartrending lamentations. He 
would recover himself and return to his mother, and with re- 
markable self possession try to cheer her broken spirits and 
lighten her load of sorrow. His conduct was a most remark- 
able exhibition of calmness. About a quarter of an hour be- 
fore the President died his breathing became very difficult, and 
in many instances seemed to have entirely ceased, so that the 
surgeons who were holding his pulse supposed him to be dead. 
He would again rally and breathe with so great difficulty as to 
be heard almost in every part of the house. Mrs. Lincoln took 
her last leave of him about twenty minutes before he ex- 
pired, and was sitting in the adjoining room when it was an- 
nounced to her that he was dead. When the announcement 
was made, she exclaimed, " Oh, why did you not tell me he was 
dying?" 

It being ascertained that life was extinct, the Rev. Dr. Gurley 
knelt at the bedside and offered an impressive prayer, which 
was responded to by all present. Dr. Gurley then proceeded 
to the front parlor, where Mrs. Lincoln, Captain Robert Lin- 
coln, Mr. John Hay, the private secretary, and others, were 



36 

waiting, wlicre he again offered prayer for the consolation of 
the family. 

The surgeons and the members of the Cabinet, Senator 
Sumner, Captain Robert Lincoln, General Todd, Mr. Field, 
and Mr. Andrews, were standing at his bedside when he 
breathed his last. Senator Samner, General Todd, Robert 
Lincoln, and Rufus Andrews stood leaning over the headboard 
of the bed watching every motion of the beating breast of 
the dying President. Robert Lincoln was resting himself upon 
the arm of Senator Sumner. The members of the Cabinet 
were standing by the side of the bed — Secretary Stanton at 
the left of Mr. Andrews, Mr. Andrews near Mr. Lincoln's 
head. Next to him was Mr. Dennison, and the others arranged 
along at his left, and the surgeons were sitting upon the side 
and foot of the bed, holding the President's hands, and with 
their watches observing the slow declension of the pulse, and 
watching tlie ebbing out of the vital spirit. Such was the sol- 
emn stillness for the space of five minutes that the ticking of 
the watches could be heard in the room. At twenty-two min- 
utes past seven A. M. his muscles relaxed and the spirit of 
Abraham Lincoln fled from its earthly tabernacle " to that 
bourne from which no traveller returns." The countenance of 
the President was beaming with that characteristic smile which 
only those who have seen him in his happiest moments can ap- 
preciate ; and, except the blackness of his eyes, his face ap- 
peared perfectly natural. He died without a struggle, and 
without even a perceptible motion of a limb. Calmly and si- 
lently the great and good man passed away. The morning was 
calm, and the rain was dropping gently upon the roof of the 
humble apartment where they laid him down to die. Guards 
had been stationed to keep the people from the house, and no 
noise could be heard in the streets save the footsteps of the 
sentry passing to and fro, as he guarded all that remained of 
Abraham Lincoln. The body servant of the President entered 
the room just before he died, and as the breath left the body of 
Mr. Lincoln this servant manifested the deepest sorrow All 
present felt the awful solemnity of the occasion, and no man 
could have witnessed the touchino; scenes without melting; to 



37 

tears. Mr. Stanton, whose coolness and self-possession were 
remarkable, could not keep back the silent monitors of the 
inward sorrow which rolled out from his eyes upon his cheeks. 
Mrs. Lincoln remained lint a short time, when she was assisted 
into her carriage, and Avith her son Robert and other friends 
she was driven to the house where but last evening she left for 
the last time witli her honored husband, who never again was 
to enter that home alive. 

The agony of that night, what man can measure, what judg- 
ment short of the Infinite estimate ! 

Within, a wife by the bedside of a dying, murdered husband. 
The statesmen of a nation just recovering from an unparalleled 
convulsion, losing the leader that steered them through it. 
Without, a people wailing over the loss of a heart and brain 
that felt and throbbed for them alone, and the awed operator 
spreading woe and consternation over a land that has been 
mourning its dead for four long years of bitter strife. From 
the Rocky IMountains, away across the great prairies, a people 
replacing the jubilates of the day before with a night of univer- 
sal requiem ! 

From the very first the case was hopeless. The pulse, which 
at eleven was reported 41, at half-past one was up to 86, and 
at six failing, and at twenty- two minutes past seven he was 

DEAD ! 

Around him when he died were Secretaries Stanton, Wells, 
Usher J Attorney General Speed ; Postmaster General Dennison; 
M. B. Field, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury ; Judge Otto, 
Assistant Secretary of the Interior ; General Ilalleck, General 
Meigs, Senator Sumner; F. R. Andrews, of New York ; Gene- 
ral Todd, of Daeotali ; John Ilay, (Private Secretary,) Gover- 
nor Oglesby, of Illinois ; General Farnsworth, Mrs. and Miss 
Kenny, Miss Harris, Captain Robert Lincoln, son of the Presi- 
dent, and Drs. E. W. Abbott, R. K. Stone, C. D. Gatch, Neal, 
Hall, and Leiberman. Secretary McCullough remained Avith 
him until about 5 o'clock, and Chief Justice Chase, after several 
hours attendance during the night, returned again early in the 
morninu;. 



38 



ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE PEESIDENT S DEATH BY THE SECRETARY 

OF WAR. 

Washington, D. C, April 15, 1865—1.30 A. M. 
Major General Dix, New York: 

This evening, about 9.30 P. M., at Ford's Theatre, the President, while sitting 
in his private box with Mrs. Lincoln, Miss Harris, and Major Rathbone, was 
shot by an assassin, who suddenly entered the box and approached behind the 
President. The assassin then leaped upon the stage, brandishing a large dag- 
ger or knife, and made his escape in the rear of the theatre. 

The pistol ball entered the back of the head of the President and penetrated 
nearly through the head. The wound is mortal. The President has been insen- 
sible ever since it was inflicted, and is now dying. 

About the same time an assassin, either the same or another, entered Mr. 
Seward's house, and under pretence of having a prescription, was shown to the 
Secretary's sick chamber. The Secretary was in bed, a nurse and iliss Seward 
with him. 

The assassin immediately rushed to the bed and inflicted two or three stabs 
on the throat and two on the face. It is hoped the wounds may not be mortal. 
My apprehension is that they will prove fatal. 

The noise alarmed Mr. Frederick Seward, who was in an adjoining room, 
and hastened to the door of his father's room, where he met the assassin, who 
inflicted upon him one or more dangerous wounds. 

The recovery of Frederick Seward is doubtful. It is not probable that the 
President will live through the night. 

General Grant and wife were advertised to be at the theatre this evening, but 
started to Burlington at 6 P. M. 

At a Cabinet meeting, at which General Grant was present, to-day, the sub- 
ject of the state of the country, and the prospects of a speedy peace, &c., were 
discussed. 

The President was very cheerful and hopeful, and spoke very kindly of Lee 
and other officers of the rebel army, and the establishment of the Government 
in Virginia. 

All the members of the Cabinet, except Mr. Seward, are now with Mr. Lin- 
coln. 

I have seen Mr. Seward. He and Frederick Seward are both unconscious. 

EDWIN M. STANTON, 

Secretary of War. 

Wae Department, 
Washington, D. C, April 15, 1865—3 A. M. 
Major General Dix, New YorTc: 

The President still breathes, but is quite insensible, as he has been ever since 
he was shot. He evidently did not see the person who shot him, but was look- 
ing on the stage as he was approached behind. 

EDWIN M. STANTON, 

Secretary oj War. 



39 

"War Department, 
Washington, April 15 — 4.10 A. M. 
To Major General Dis : 

The President continues insensible and is sinking. 

EDWIN M. STANTON, 

Secretary of War. 

War Department, Washington, April 15. 
Major General DiX: 

Abraham Lincoln died this morning at twenty-two minutes after 7 o'clock. 

EDWIN M. STANTON, 
Secretary of War. 

The following minutes, taken by Dr. Abbott, show tlie con- 
dition of the President throughout the night : 

11 o'clock — Pulse 41. 

11.5 — 45, and growing weaker. 

11.10—45. 

11.15—42. 

11.20—45. Respiration 27 to 29. 

11.25—42. 

11.32—48, and full. 

11.40-45. 

11.45 — 45. Pwespiration 22. 

12-^8. Respiration 22. 

12.15 — 48. Respiration 21. Echmos both eyes. 

12.30—54. 

12.32—60. 

12.35—66. 

12.40 — 69. Right eye much swollen, and echemoses. 

12.45—70. Respiration 27. 

12.55 — 80. Struggling motion of arms. 

1 o'clock — 86. Respiration 30. 

1.30 — 95. Appearing easier. 

1.45 — 86. Very quiet. Respiration irregular. Mrs. Lincoln present. 

2.10 — Mrs. Lincoln retired with Robert Lincoln to an adjoining room. 

2.30 — President very quiet. Pulse 54. Respiration 28. 

2.52 — 48. Respiration 30. 

3 o'clock — Visited again by Mrs. Lincoln. 

3.25 — Respiration 24, and regular. 

3.35— Prayer by Rev. Dr. Gurley. 

4 — Respiration 26, and regular. 

4.15— Pulse 60. Respiration 25. 

5.50 — Respiration 28 ; regular. Sleeping. 

6 — Pulse failing. Respiration 28. 

6.30 — Still failing, and labored breathing. 

7 — Symptoms of immediate dissolution. 

7.22— Death. 



40 

Shortly after 9 o'clock Saturday morning the remains were 
placed in a temporary coffin, under the direction of Mr. Frank 
Sands, and removed to the White House, six young men of the 
quartermaster's department carrying the body to the house. 

An escort of cavalry, (Union Light Guard,) under the com- 
mand of Lieutenant Jamison, accompanied the remains, which 
were followed by Generals Augur, commanding Department of 
"Washington ; Rucker, depot quartermaster ; Colonel Pelouze, 
of the War Department ; Captain Finley Anderson, A. A. G., 
Hancock's corps ; Captain D. G. Thomas, clothing depot ; 
Captains J. H. Crowell and C. Baker. 

The solemn procession moved slowly up 10th street to G, 
and thence to the White House, a large crowd present along 
the route standing uncovered. Immediately on the guard 
being removed, a rush was made toward the house occupied 
during the night by the President, remaining about the entrance 
for some time. 

The house to which the President was carried from the 
theatre is No. 453 Tenth street, between E and F streets. The 
house is a plain three-story brick, built in 1849. 

The room in wliich he breathed his last is on the first story, 
at the end of a hall from wliich rises a stairway. The room 
is covered with a paper of a brown hue, figured with white. 
In the room are a table and a bureau covered with crotchet, 
besides eight chairs. The room measures fifteen feet by nine, 
and is carpeted with Brussels. The bed on which he lay was a low 
walnut four-poster. The sheeting and blankets used the night 
before had been removed, and nothing remained but two cotton 
mattresses and two pillows. They were all stained with his 
blood. 

The walls were hung with one photograph taken from some 
lithograph of Rosa Bonheur's Horse Fair, an engraved copy of 
Herring's Village Blacksmith, and two smaller ones of " The 
Stable " and '' Barn-yard," from the same artist. The house 
is built of material too frail to induce the hope that it will long 
stand as a memento of the great man who died in it, being 
built rather on the tenement style. 



41 



THE AUTOPSY. 



Surgeon General Barnes, assisted by Doctors Stone, (the late 
President's family physician.) Curtis, "Woodward, Crane, Tafft, 
and otlicr eminent medical men, made an autopsy, in tlie pres- 
ence of President Johnson, General Augur, and General Rucker. 
The external appearance of the face of the President presented 
a deep black stain around both eyes. The fatal wound was on 
the left side of the head, behind, in a line witli and three inches 
from the left ear. The course of the ball was obliquely for- 
ward toward the right eye, crossing the brain in an oblique 
manner, and lodging a few inches behind that eye. In the 
track of the wound were found fragments of bone which had 
been driven forward by the ball, whicli was imbedded in the 
anterior lobe of the left hemisphere of the brain. The orl)it 
plates of both eyes were the seat of comminuted fracture, and 
the eyes were filled with extravasated blood. The serious 
injury of the orbit plates was due to the contre-coiqj — the result 
of the intense shock of so large a projectile fired so closely to 
the head. The ball was evidently a Derringer, hand-cast, and 
from which the neck liad been clipped. A shaving of lead had 
been removed from the ball in its passage through tlie bones 
of the skull, and was found in the orifice of the wound. The 
first fragment of bone was found two and a half inches within 
the brain ; the second and larger fragment about four inches 
from the orifice of the wound. The ball lay still further in 
advance. The wound was about one-half inch in diameter. 
The autopsy fully confirmed the opinion of the surgeons on the 
night of the assassination, that the wound was mortal. 

THE BODY EMBALMED. 

Doctors Brown and Alexander were sent for to embalm the 
body of President Lincoln. The embalming process was per- 
formed by Mr. Harry P. Cattell, an employee of the above- 
mentioned firm, who also embalmed little Willie Lincoln, son 
of the President, in February, 1862. The body was embalmed 
in the late President's own bed-room, in the west wing of the 



42 

Executive Mansion, fronting on Pennsylvania avenue. Among 
those in attendance during the process were Vice President 
Johnson, General Augur, General Rucker, and the attending 
physicians of the lamented deceased. 

TESTIMONY IN REGAKD TO THE ASSASSINATION — ACCOUNTS BY 
EYE-WITNESSES. 

The following affidavits have a most important bearing on 
the tragedy. As they were drawn up with great care, and are 
in the form of legal evidence, they will be read with interest : 

Affidavit of Major Rathbone, 

DiSTEicT OF Columbia, ] 
City of Washington, j 

Henry R. Rathbone, Brevet Major in the army of the United States, being 
duly sworn, says, that on the 14th day of April instant, at about twenty min- 
utes past eight o'clock in the evening, he, with Miss Clara H. Harris, left his 
residence, at the corner of Fifteenth and H streets, and joined the President 
and Mrs. Lincoln, and went with them, in their carriage, to Ford's Theatre, in 
Tenth street : the box assigned to the President is in the second tier, on the 
right-hand side of the audience, and was occupied by the President and Mrs. 
Lincoln, Miss Harris, and the deponent, and by no other person ; the box is 
entered by passing from the front of the building, in the rear of the dress circle, 
to a small entry or passage way, about eight feet in length and four feet in 
width; this passage way is entered by a door, which opens on the inner side; 
the door is so placed as to make an acute angle between it and the wall behind 
it on the inner side ; at the inner end of this passage way is another door, stand- 
ing squarely across, and opening into the box ; this latter door was closed ; the 
party entered the box through the door at the end of the passage way ; the box 
is so constructed that it may be divided into two by a movable partition, one 
of the doors described opening into each ; the front of the box is about ten or 
twelve feet in length, and in the centre of the railing is a small pillar, overhung 
with a curtain ; the depth of the box from front to rear is about nine feet ; the 
elevation of the box above the stage, including the railing, is about ten or 
twelve feet. 

When the party entered the box, a cushioned arm-chair was standing at the 
end of the box furthest from the stage and nearest the audience. This was 
also the nearest point to the door by which the box is entered. The President 
seated himself in this chair, and~ except that he once left the chair for the pur- 
pose of putting on his overcoat, remained so seated until he was shot. Mrs. 
Lincoln was seated in a chair between the President and the pillar in the 
centre, above described. At the opposite end of the box — that nearest the end 



43 

of the stage — were two chairs. In one of these, standing in the corner, Miss 
Harris was seated. At her left hand, and along the wall running from that end 
of the box to the rear, stood a small sofa. At the end of this sofa, next to Miss 
Harris, this deponent was seated. The distance between this deponent and the 
President, as they were sitting, was about seven or eight feet, and the distance 
between this deponent and the door was a.bout the same. The distance between 
the President, as he sat, and the door, was about four or five feet. The door, 
according to the recollection of this deponent, was not closed during the eve- 
ning. When the second scene of the third act was being performed, and while 
this deponent was intently observing the proceedings upon the stage, with his 
back toward the door, he heard the discharge of a pistol behind him, and look- 
ing around, saw, through the smoke, a man between the door and the President. 
At the same time deponent heard him shout some word which deponent thinks 
was " Freedom ! " This deponent instantly sprang toward him and seized him ; 
he wrested himself from his grasp and made a violent thrust at the breast of 
deponent with a large knife. Deponent parried the blow by striking it up, and 
received a wound several inches deep in his left arm, between the elbow and 
the shoulder. The orifice of the wound is about an inch and a half in length, 
and extends upwards towards the shoulder several inches. The man rushed to 
the front of the box, and deponent endeavored to seize him again, but only 
caught his clothes as he was leaping over the railing of the box. The clothes, 
as deponent believes, were torn in this attempt to seize him. As he went over 
upon the stage, deponent cried out with a loud voice, "Stop that man!" De- 
ponent then turned to the President ; his position was not changed ; his head 
was slightly bent forward, and his eyes were closed. Deponent saw that he was 
unconscious, and supposing him mortally wounded, rushed to the door for the 
purpose of calling medical aid. On reaching the outer door of the passage way 
as above described, deponent found it barred by a heavy piece of plank, one end 
of which was secured in the wall, and the other resting against the door. It 
had been so securely fastened that it required considerable force to remove it. 
This wedge or bar was about four feet from the floor. Persons upon the outside 
were beating against the door for the purpose of entering. Deponent removed 
the bar, and the door was opened. Several persons who represented themselves 
to be surgeons were allowed to enter. Deponent saw there Colonel Crawford, 
and requested him to prevent other persons from entering the box. Deponent 
then returned to the box, and found the surgeons examining the President's 
person. They had not yet discovered the wound. As soon as it was discovered 
it was determined to remove him from the theatre. He was carried out, and 
this deponent then proceeded to assist Mrs. Lincoln, who was intensely excited, 
to leave the theatre. On reaching the head of the stairs, deponent requested 
Major Potter to aid him in assisting Mrs. Lincoln across the street to the house 
to which the President was being conveyed. The wound which deponent had 
received had been bleeding very profusely, and on reaching the hou.se, feeling 
very faint from the loss of blood, he seated himself in the hall, and soon after 
fainted away, and was laid upon the floor. Upon the return of consciousness, 
deponent was taken in a carriage to his residence. 

In the review of the transaction, it is the confident belief of this deponent 



44 

• 

that the time which elapsed between the discharge of the pistol and the time 
when the assassin leaped from the box did not exceed thirty seconds. Neither 
Mrs. Lincoln nor Miss Harris had left their seats. 

H. R. RATHBONE. 

Subscribed and sworn before me this 17th day of April, 1865. 

A. B. OLIN, 
Justice Supreme Court, D. C. 

Affidavit of Miss Harris, 

District of Columbia, 
City of Washington, 

Clara H. Harris, being duly sworn, says that she has read the foregoing affi- 
davit of Major Rathbone, and knows the contents thereof; that she was present 
at Ford's Theatre with the President and Mrs. Lincoln and Major Rathbone on 
the evening of the 14th of April instant; that at the time she heard the dis- 
charge of the pistol she was attentively engaged in observing what was trans- 
piring upon the stage, and looking round she saw Major Rathbone spring from 
bis seat and advance to the opposite side of the box ; that she saw him engaged 
as if in a struggle with another man, but the smoke with which he was envel- 
oped prevented this deponent from seeing distinctly, the other man ; that the 
first time she saw him distinctly was when he leaped from the box upon the 
stage ; that she then heard Major Rathbone cry out " Stop that man !" and this 
deponent then immediately repeated the cry, " Stop that man ! Won't somebody 
stop that man?" A moment after, some one from the stage asked, "What is 
it?" or " What is the matter?" and deponent replied, "The President is shot." 
Very soon after, two persons, one wearing the uniform of a naval surgeon, and 
the other that of a soldier of the Veteran Reserve Corps, came upon the stage, 
and the deponent assisted them in climbing up to the box. 

And this deponent further says that the facts stated in the foregoing affidavit, 
BO far as the same came to the knowledge or notice of this deponent, are accu- 
rately stated therein. 

CLARA H. HARRIS. 

Subscribed and sworn before me this 17th day of April, 1865. 

A. B. OLIN, 
ChieJ Justice Su'oreme Court, D. C. 



JOHN WILKES BOOTH THE ASSASSIN OF THE 
PRESIDENT. 



At 3 o'clock Saturday morning, April 15th, while the Presi- 
dent was passing through his dying moments, the Secretary of 
War telegraphed to Major General Dix, of New York, that 
"investigation strongly indicates J. Wilkes Booth as the 
assassin of the President. Chief Justice Cartter is engaged in 
taking the evidence. Every attempt has been made to prevent 
the escape of the murderer. His horse has been found on the 
road near Washington." On the same morning the Secretary 
of War again telegraphed to General Dix : 

It is now ascertained with reasonable certainty that two assassins were 
engaged in the horrible crime ; J. Wilkes Booth being the one that shot the 
President, and the other, a companion of his, whose name is not known, but 
whose description is so clear that he can hardly escape. It appears from a letter 
found in Booth's trunk that the murder was planned before the 4th of March, 
but fell through then because the accomplice backed out until " Richmond 
could be heard from." It would seem that they had for several days been seek- 
ing their chance, but for some unknown reason it was not carried into effect 
until last night. 

The following statement confirmed the fact that the atrocious 
deed was committed by Booth : 

STATEMENT OP MR. FEKGUSON. 

Mr. James P" Ferguson went to the theatre with a lady on Friday night for 
the express purpose of seeing General Grant, who was announced to be present. 
Mr. Ferguson saw the Presidential party enter the box, but of course did not 
Bee the Lieutenant General. He, however, continued to watch the box, think- 

45 



46 

ing that the General might intend to slip quietly in, in order to avoid the de- 
monstrations that would attend his recognition. 

When the second scene of the third act of the play was reached, Mr. 
Ferguson saw (and recognized) John Wilkes Booth making his way along the 
dress circle to the President's box. Of this box Mr. Ferguson had an excellent 
view, being seated in the dress circle just opposite to it, next to the private 
boxes on the other side of the circle. This seat he had purposely chosen to af- 
ford his companion a good view of the Lieutenant General, and, for the reasons 
already stated, was narrowly watching the entrance to it. 

Mr. Ferguson watched for his appearance in the bos, desiring to see who in 
that party the actor could be on such intimate terms with, as to feel warranted 
in taking such a liberty. Whether Booth shut the door of the little corridor 
or left it open behind him, Mr. Ferguson fears to state positively ; but from 
what he observed of the door, and for reasons hereafter to be stated, believes 
he did shut it. The shot was the next thing Mr. F. remembers. He saw the 
smoke, then perceived Booth standing upright with both hands raised, but at 
that moment saw no weapon or anything else in either. Booth then sprang to 
the front of the box, laid his left hand on the railing in front, was checked an 
instant, evidently by his coat or pants being caught in something, or held back 
by somebody. (It was by Major Rathbone.) 

Mr. Ferguson and Booth had met in the afternoon and conversed, and were 
well acquainted with each other, so that the former immediately recognized 
him. Booth stopped two steps from the door, took off his hat, and, holding it 
in his left hand, leaned against the wall behind him. In this attitude he re- 
mained for half a minute ; then, adds Mr. Ferguson, he stepped down one step, 
put his hand on the door of the little corridor leading to the box, bent his knee 
against it, the door opened and Booth entered, and was for the time hidden 
from Mr. Ferguson's sight. 

A post in front obstructed the view of Mr. Ferguson, but Booth soon changed 
his position, and again was clearly seen by him. He now had a knife in his 
right hand, which he also laid upon the railing, as he already had his left, and 
vaulted out. As his legs passed between the folds of the flags decorating the 
box, his spur, which he wore on the right heel, caught the drapery and brought 
it down, tearing a strip with it. When he let go the railing he still clutched 
the shining knife. He crouched as he fell, falling on one knee, and putting 
forth both hands to help himself to recover an erect position, which he did 
with the rapidity and easy agility of an athlete. 

Having recovered his equilibrium. Booth strode across the stage to the first 
entrance, passing behind the actor on the stage, (Hawk.) When he reached the 
other side of the stage, just ere he became invisible by passing into the entrance, 
he looked up, and Mr. Ferguson says he heard him say, " I have done it," and 
(hen lost sight of him. 

Mr. Ferguson visited the theatre yesterday, and, with Miss Harris, the lady 
who was in the box with the President, her father. Judge Olin, of the Criminal 
Court, and Judge Cartter, examined the box. 

The puzzling hole in the unused door of the box was closely scrutinized by 
the light of a candle, and was found to possess indubitable marks of having 



47 

been whittled with a knife. The ball extracted from the head of the President 
is of much larger diameter than the hole. The edges of the hole show the 
marks of a knife-blade very clearly. 

When the shot had been fired, Miss Harris rose to her feet to call for water 
for Mr. Lincoln, and distinctly noticed a bar of wood placed across the door of 
the little corridor, one end resting against the wall, into which it was partially 
let by a cut, or rather an indentation, scooped in the wall. The other end was 
braced against the opposite part of tlio door-frame. This bar, as the door opens 
inward, would effectually delay, if not wholly prevent, all ingress into the box 
from the dress circle, and would also detain the egress of any one in the box. 

Miss Harris also recollects that a pocket knife, with one blade open, lay on 
the balustrade of the box when she and the other three members of the Presi- 
dential party entered it. 

Mr. Ferguson, as soon after the assassination as he could get out of the theatre, 
proceeded to the office of the Superintendent of Police, and narrated to him 
what we have here detailed, from his first sight of Booth to his final disappear- 
ance, informing the Superintendent who the murderer was. Mr. Ferguson then 
proceeded to Mr. Peterson's house, where the President lay, and requested ad- 
mittance, to make known to the high authorities there assembled the name of 
the assassin, and repeat his testimony. He was admitted, and stated these facts 
then to General Augur and Judge Cartter. 

The crime of Booth, unparalleled in history for its atrocious- 
ness and results, had been long and deliberately premeditated. 
He declared, a year and a half before he committed the assas- 
sination, that " the man who killed Abraham Lincoln would 
occupy a higher niche of fame than George Washington ;" and 
on another occasion said to a theatrical friend, " What a glo- 
rious opportunity there is for a man to immortalize himself bjr 
killing Lincoln.''" 

The government took the most prompt and thorough meas- 
ures for the apprehension of the assassin and his accomplices. 
Secretary Stanton, who deserves the thanks of tlie nation and 
of the civilized world for his immediate, efficient, and success- 
ful exposure of the plot to assassinate President Lincoln, and 
for the arrest of Bootli and all his accomplices, issued the fol- 
lowing proclamation : 

GOVERNMENT EEWARD FOR THE APPREHENSION OF THE 

ASSASSINS. 

Wae Department, 
Washington, April 20, 1865. 
The murderer of our late beloved President is still at large. Fifty thousand 
dollars reward will be paid by this Department for his apprehension, in addi- 
tion to any reward offered by municipal authorities or State Executives. 



48 

Twenty-five thousand dollars reward will be paid for the apprehension of 
G. A. Atzerott, sometimes called " Port Tobacco," one of Booth's accomplices. 
Twenty-five thousand dollars reward will be paid for the apprehension of Da- 
vid C. Herold, another of Booth's accomplices. A liberal reward will be paid 
for any information that shall conduce to the arrest of either of the above- 
named criminals or their accomplices. All persons harboring or secreting the 
said persons, or either of them, or aiding or assisting their concealment or 
escape, will be treated as accomplices in the murder of the President and the 
attempted assassination of the Secretary of State, and shall be subject to trial 
before a military commission and the punishment of death. 

Let the stain of innocent blood be removed from the land by the arrest and 
punishment of the murderers. 

All good citizens are exhorted to aid public justice on this occasion. Every 
man should consider his own conscience charged with this solemn duty, and 
rest neither night nor day until it be accomplished. 

EDWIN M. STANTON, 
Secretary of War 

THE CAPTURE AND DEATH OF THE ASSASSIN. 

The announcement of the capture and death of the assassin 
of the President was made by the Secretary of War, as fol- 
lows : 

War Depaktment, 
Washington, D. C, April 27, 1865. 
Major General Dix, New York: 

J. Wilkes Booth and Herold were chased from the swamp in St. Mary's 
county, Maryland, and pursued yesterday morning to Garrett's farm, near Port 
Royal, on the Rapjjahannock, by Colonel Baker's force. The barn in which 
they took refuge was fired. Booth,, in making his escape, was shot through the 
head and killed, lingering about three hours, and Herold taken alive. 
Booth's body and Herold are now here. 

EDWIN M. STANTON, 

Secretary of War. 

The barn in which he and his associate had secreted them- 
selves was surrounded by the pursuing party — a company of 
twenty-eight cavalrymen of the 16th New York regiment, under 
Lieutenant Dougherty. Booth was commanded to come out of 
the barn and surrender, but with a bold defiance he replied, " / 
ivill never surrender ; I ivill never he taken alive. If you want 
me you must take me. Who do you take me for ? " 

Finding he would not surrender, the barn was fired, in order 
to force him out, at 3 o'clock on Wednesday morning, the 26th 
of April. He sprang towards the door of the barn, when 



49 

Sergeant Boston Corbctt fired at liini tlu'oui>-!i a crevice and 
inflicted a mortal wound. The ball struck him in the head, 
just below the right ear, ar.d passing through came out about 
an inch above the left ear. After he was wounded, the Sergeant 
went into the barn and said to Booth, " Where are you wound- 
ed?" His eyeballs glaring with a peculiar brilliancy, here- 
plied, " /;i ilic head; you have finished we." He was then 
carried out of the barn into the open air, where he died in 
four hours. 

He was asked during the hours of his agony if he had any- 
thing to say; he replied, " I die for my country. Tell mother,''^ 
he repeated, ^' I died for my country J^ He asked to see his 
hands, and, as he gazed upon the helpless dead members, he ex- 
claimed, " Useless, useless ;^^ and at another moment of his 
agony he cried, '^ Blood, hlood.'" He said several times during 
his dying hours, " Kill me, kill me," to end his excruciating 
pains. Pie did not deny his crime. 

His mind, during those agonizing hours, was clear and undis- 
turbed, save from the shock of the wound and pain ; but the 
brain was uninjured. *' It was," says high medical authority, 
" a living, active mind, with a helpless, paralyzed body, with 
the most excruciating, agonizing pain that a human body can 
be subject to. From the moment the ball struck him he was 
dead and helpless, with a mind clear, in intense suffering; a 
living witness of his own just punishment for his atrocious 
deed. Was there not the avenging hand of God upon him from 
the moment he exclaimed, upon the stage of Ford's theatre, 
'The South avenged?' Could the end of such a life be more 
painful, more dreadful, more appalling ? Was there not in it 
all the hand of an overruling Providence ? " 

The body was brought to the navy-yard, and after its legal 
identification, was, by the order of the Secretary of War, 
secretly buried, with a blanket for its winding sheet, and a 
coarse box for its coffin, in a spot of which but few mortals 
will ever know. 

EXTENT OP THE CONSPIRACY TO ASSASSINATE THE PKESIDE T. 

The assassination plot to murder President Lincoln reached 

4 



50 

far beyond Booth and his immediate accomplices. The Secre- 
tary of War announced ofiicially this fact, as follows : 

War Department, 
Washington, April 24, 1865. 
Major General Dis, New York : 

This department has information that the President's munder was organ- 
ized in Canada and approved in Richmond. 

One of the assassins, now in prison, who attempted to kill Mr. Seward, is be- 
lieved to be one of the St. Albans raiders. 

EDWIN M. STANTON, 

Secretary of War. 

Ten days subsequent to this official announcement, evidence 
had become so accumulative and satisfactory that President 
Johnson issued the following : 

BY THE PRESIDENT OP THE UNITED STATES OP AMERICA : 
A PROCLAMATION. 

Whereas it appears from evidence in the Bureau of Military Justice that the 
atrocious murder of the late President, Abraham Lincoln, and the attempted 
assassination of the Honorable William H. Seward, Secretary of Sate, were 
incited, concerted, and procured by and between Jefferson Davis, late of 
Richmond, Virginia, and Jacob Thompson, Clement C. Clay, Beverly Tucker, 
George N. Saunders, William C. Cleary, and other rebels and traitors against 
the Government of the United States, harbored in Canada : 

Now, therefore, to the end that justice may be done, I, Andrew Johnson, 
President of the United States, do offer and promise for the arrest of said per- 
sons, or either of them, within the limits of the United States, so that they can 
be brought to trial, the following rewards : 

One Hundred Thousand Dollars for the arrest of Jefferson Davis. 

Twenty-five thousand Dollars for the arrest of Clement C. Clay. 

Twenty-five Thousand Dollars for the arrest of Jacob Thompson, late of 
Mississippi. 

Twenty-five Thousand Dollars for the arrest of George N. Saunders. 

Twenty-five Thousand Dollars for the arrest of Beverly Tucker. 

Ten Thousand Dollars for the arrest of William C. Cleary, late clerk of Cle- 
ment C. Clay. 

The Provost Marshal General of the United States is directed to cause a de- 
scription of said persons, with notice of the above rewards, to be published. 

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of 
the United States to be afl5xed. 

Done at the city of Washington, this second day of May, in the year of our 
Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, and of the independ- 
l-"^" ^"J ence of the United States of America the eighty-fifth. 

ANDREW JOHNSON. 
By the President : 

W. Hunter, Acting Secretary of State. 



61 

Thus it appears that the assassin of President Lincoln and 
the would-be murderer of Secretary Seward have developed a 
well-laid and deliberately matured plan of assassination and 
infamous murder and arson unparalleled in the annals of 
crime. Many unsuspected and unsuspecting parties are in- 
volved, and the evidence is complete to show that it was 
neither the freak of a madman nor an act of individual hate, 
but a scheme concocted by leaders of the rebellion, and relied 
upon by them in the hour of their most desperate need as one 
of the means of success in their great treasonable enterprise. 

The plot of assassination included not only President Lincoln, 
but William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Vice President 
Andrew Johnson, Lieutenant General U. S. Grant, and other 
high officers of the government. The hope was to throw the 
Government into anarchy and give the last desperate chance 
for the great rebellion to succeed. The providence of God and 
the stable nature of our institutions defeated this diabolical 
conspiracy, except in the case of our honored and beloved Pres- 
ident and the severe wounds inflicted upon the distinguished 
Secretary of State. 

The guilt of this atrocious conspiracy is greatly increased by 
the merciful character of President Lincoln and his " charity 
for all," even to the most criminal leaders of tlie rebellion. 
Among his last official acts was his signature and seal to a 
permit to Jacob Thompson, a former Secretary of the Interior 
under President Buchanan, to leave the country for Europe. 

MILITARY COMMISSION FOR THE TRIAL OF THE ACCOMPLICES 

OF BOOTH. 

The Commission met on the 9th of May, 1865, in Washing- 
ton city, and consisted of the following officers and civilians : 
Major General David Hunter, U. S. V. ; Major General Lew. 
Wallace, U. S. V.; Brevet Major General August Y. Kautz, 
U. S. V. ; Brigadier General Alvin P. Howe, U. S. V.; Brig- 
adier General Robert S. Foster, U. S. V. ; Brevet Brigadier 
General James A. Ekin, U. S. V. ; Brigadier General T. M. 
Harris, U. S. V. ; Brevet Colonel C. H. Tompkins, U. S. A. ; 
Brigadier General Joseph Holt, Judge Advocate and Recorder; 



52 

and John A. Bingham and Brevet Colonel Burnett as Assistant 
Judge Advocates. The objects and authority of the Commis- 
sion are found in the following order by the President of the 
United States : 

Executive Chamber, 
Washington Citt, May 1, 1865. 

Whereas the Attorney General of the United States hath given his opinion : 

" That the persons implicated in the murder of the late President, Abraham 
Lincoln, and the attempted assassination of the Honorable William H. Seward, 
Secretary of State, and in an alleged conspiracy to assassinate other officers of 
the Federal Government at Washington city, and their aiders and abettors, 
are subject to the jurisdiction of and legally triable before a military commis- 
sion : " 

It is ordered: 1st. That the Assistant Adjutant General detail nine com- 
petent military officers to serve as a commission for the trial of said parties, 
and that the Judge Advocate General proceed to prefer charges against said 
parties for their alleged offences, and bring them to trial before said military 
commission ; that said trial or trials be conducted by the said Judge Advocate 
General, and, as recorder thereof, in person, aided by such assistant or special 
judge advocates as he may designate; and that said trials be conducted with 
all diligence consistent with the ends of justice ; the said commission to sit with- 
out regard to hours. 

2d. That Brevet Major General Hartranft be assigned to duty as special 
provost marshal general for the purposes of said trial and attendance upon said 
commission and the execution of its mandates. 

3d. That the said commission establish such order or rules of proceeding as 
may avoid unnecessary delay and conduce to the ends of public justice. 

ANDREW JOHNSON. 

Adjutant General's Office, 

Washington, D. C, May 6, 1865. 

Official copy. 

W. A. Nichols, 

Assistant Adjutant General. 

The following are the names of the prisoners arraigned as 
accomplices in the assassination of the President, viz : David 
B. Herold, Lewis Payne, Michael O'Laughlin, Samuel E. Mudd, 
Samuel B. Arnold, George A. Atzerott, and Mary E. Surri^tt, 
all of whom plead not guilty. 



INAUGURATION OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 



The distressing event that has transferred the Vice President 
of the United States into the Chief Magistracy of the country 
makes it a matter of interest to know what provisions exist 
in the case of the death of both the President and Vice Presi- 
dent at the same time. Tlie sixth section of the second article 
of the Constitution contains all that is said in that instrument 
on the subject, and is as follows : 

In case of the removal of the President from office, or of his death, resigna- 
tion, or inability to discharge the duties of said office, the same shall devolve 
on the Vice President. And the Congress may by law provide for the case of 
removal, death, resignation, or inability of the President and Vice President, 
declaring what officer shall then act as President, and such officer shall act 
accordingly until the disability be removed, or a President shall be elected. 

Pursuant of this constitutional provision, in an act of Con- 
gress approved Marcli 1st, 1792, it was provided as follows : 

Section 9. And be it further enacted, That in case of removal, death, resig- 
nation, or inability, both of the President and Vice President of the United 
States, the President of the Senate pro tempore, and in case there shall be no 
President of the Senate, then the Speaker of the House of Pi.epresentatives, for 
the time being, shall act as President of the United States until the disability 
be removed, or a President shall be elected. 

Two previous instances had occurred in the history of the 
government in which tlie death of the Presidents devolved the 
duties of the office on the Vice Presidents. The first was that 
of President William Henry Harrison, who died on the 7th of 
April, 1841, and was succeeded by Vice President Jolin Tyler, 
wlio became one of the influential leaders in the great rebellion. 

53 



54 

The other was the death of President Zachary Taylor, who 
died on the 9tli of July, 1849, and was succeeded by Vice Presi- 
dent Millard Fillmore. 

After the death of President Lincoln, early on Saturday 
morning, the 15th of April, 1865, Attorney General Speed 
waited upon Hon. Andrew Johnson, Vice President of the 
United States, and officially informed liini of the sudden and 
unexpected decease of President Lincoln, and stated that an 
early hour might be appointed for the inauguration of his suc- 
cessor. The following communication was handed to him : 

Washington City, D. C, April 15, 1865. 
SiE: Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, was shot by an as- 
sassin last evening, at Ford's Theatre, in this city, and died at the hour of 22 
minutes after 7 o'clock. 

About the same time at which the President was shot, an assassin entered the 
sick chamber of Hon. Wm. H. Seward, Secretary of State, and stabbed him in 
several places in the throat, neck, and face, severely if not mortally wounding 
him. Other members of the Secretary's family were dangerously wounded by 
the assassin while making his escape. By the death of President Lincoln, 
the office of President has devolved, under the Constitution, upon you. The 
emergency of the Government demands that you should immediately qualify 
according to the requirements of the Constitution, and enter upon the duties of 
President of the United States. If you will please make known your pleasure, 
such arrangements as you deem proper will be made. 
Your obedient servants, 

HUGH McCULLOCH, 

Secretary of the Treasury. 
EDWIN M. STANTON, 
Secretary of War. 
GIDEON WELLES, 

Secretary of the Navy. 
WM. DENNISON, 

Postmaster Oeneral. 
J. P. USHER, 

Secretary of the Interior. 
JAMES SPEED, 

Attorney General. 
To Andeew Johnson, 

Vice President of the United States. 

Mr. Johnson requested that the ceremony should take place 
at his rooms at the Kirkwood House, in Washington city, at 
ten o'clock in the morning. Hon. Salmon P. Chase, Chief Jus- 



55 

tice of the Supreme Court of tlie United States, was notified of 
tlie fact, and desired to be in attendance to administer the oath 
of ofSce. At the above-named hour the following gentlemen 
assembled in the Vice President's room to participate in the 
ceremony : Hon. Salmon P. Chase ; Hon. Hugh McCulloch, 
Secretary of the Treasury ; Mr. Attorney General Speed; F. P. 
Blair, Sr. ; Hon. Montgomery Blair ; Senators Foot, of Ver- 
mont ; Ramsey, of Minnesota ; Yates, of Illinois ; Stewart, of 
Nevada ; Hale, of New Hampshire ; and General Farnsworth, 
of niinois. 

After the presentation of the above letter, the Chief Justice, 
Salmon P. Chase, administered the following oath to Mr. John- 
son : 

I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of 
the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and 
defend the Constitution of the United States. 

After receiving the oath, and being declared President of the 
United States, Mr. Johnson remarked : 

Gentlemen : I must be permitted to say that I have been almost over- 
whelmed by the announcement of the sad event which has so recently occurred. 
I feel incompetent to perform duties so important and responsible as those which 
have been so unexpectedly thrown upon me. As to an indication of any policy 
which may be pursued by me in the administration of the Government, I 
have to say that that must be left for development as the administration pro- 
gresses. The message or declaration must be made by the acts as they transpire. 
The only assurance that I can now give of the future is reference to the past. 
The course which I have taken in the past, in connection with this rebellion, 
must be regarded as a guarantee of the future. My past public life, which has 
been long and laborious, has been founded, as I in good conscience believe, upon 
a groat principle of right which lies at the basis of all things. The best ener- 
gies of my life have been spent in endeavoring to establish and perpetuate the 
principles of free government, and I believe that the Government, in passing 
through its present perils, will settle down upon principles consonant with 
popular rights more permanent and enduring than heretofore. I must be per- 
mitted to say, if I understand the feelings of my own heart, that I have long 
labored to ameliorate and elevate the condition of the great mass of the Ameri- 
can people. Toil, and an honest advocacy of the great principles of free gov- 
ernment, have been my lot. Duties have been mine ; consequences are God's. 
This has been the foundation of my political creed, and I feel that in the end 
the Government will triumph, and that these great principles will be perma- 
nently established. In conclusion, gentlemen, let me say that 1 want your 



50 

eaconragement and countenance. I shall ask and rely upon you and otliers in 
carrying the Government through its present perils. I feel, in making this 
request, that it will be heartily responded to by you, and all other patriots 
and lovers of the rights and interests of a free people. 

At the conclusion of the above remarks, the President re- 
ceived the kind wishes of the friends by whom he was sur- 
rounded, and a few minutes were devoted to conversation. All 
were deeply impressed with the solemnity of the occasion, and 
the recent sad occurrence that caused the necessity for the 
speedy inauguration of the President was gravely discussed. 
Mr. Johnson was in fine health, and had an earnest sense of the 
important trust that had been confided to him. 

OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE INSTALLATION OP PRESIDENT 

JOHNSON. 

War Department, 

Washington, April 15 — 3 P. M. 
Major General Dix, New York: 

Official notice of the death of the late President, Abraham Lincoln, was 
given by the heads of departments this morning to Andrew Johnson, Vice 
President, upon whom the Constitution devolved the office of President. Mr. 
Johnson, upon receiving this notice, appeared before the Hon. Salmon P. Chase, 
Chief Justice of the United States, and took the oath of office as President of 
the United States, and assumed its duties and functions. At 12 o'clock the 
President met the heads of Departments in Cabinet meeting at the Treasury 
building, and among other business, the following was transacted : 

First. The arrangements for the funeral of the late President were referred to 
the several Secretaries, as far as relates to their respective departments. 

Second. William Hunter, Esq., was appointed Acting Secretary of State 
during the disability of Mr. Seward and his son, Frederick Seward, the Assist- 
ant Secretary. 

Third. The President formally announced that he desired to retain the present 
Secretaries of Departments of his Cabinet, and they would go on and discharge 
their respective duties in the same manner as before the deplorable event that 
had changed the head of the government. 

EDWIN M. STANTON, 

Secretary of War. 

War Department, 
Washington, April 16, 1865. 
Lieutenant General U. S. Grant, 

U. S. Army, Comdg Armies of ihe United States, Washington, D. C: 
General: You will please announce by general order to the armies of the 
United States that on Saturday, the 15th day of April, 1865, by reason of the 



57 

death of Abraham Lincoln, the office of President of the United States devolved 
xipon Andrew Johnson, Vice President, who, on the same day, took the official 
oath prescribed for the President, and entered upon the duties of that office. 

EDWIN M. STANTON, 

Becretary of War. 

War Department, Adjutant General's Office, 

Washington, April 16, 1865. 
Oeneral Orders No. 67. 

It is hereby announced to the armies of the United States that on Saturday, 
the 15th day of April, 1865, by reason of the death of Abraham Lincoln, the 
office of President of the United States devolved upon Andrew Johnson, "Vice 
President, who, on the same day, took the official oath prescribed for the Presi- 
dent, and entered upon the duties of that office. 
By command of Lieutenant General Grant: 

W. A. NICHOLS, 
Assistayit Adjutant Oeneral. 

John A. Stewart, Esq., New York : 

My Dear Sir: You will perceive that the new administration is inaugurated, 
and the wheels of government are not stopped for a moment. My hope is, and 
my belief is, that this great national calamity will teach to the world a lesson 
which will be of the most beneficial character to our republican form of govern- 
ment ; that it will show that the assassination of our Chief Magistrate does not 
affect in the slightest degree the permanence of our institutions, or the regular 
administration of the laws ; that an event which would have shaken any other 
country to the centre, does not even stagger for a moment a government like 
ours. 

Very truly yours, 

H. Mcculloch. 



MEETLNG OF SENATORS AND MEMBERS OF THE 
HOUSE OF REPRESEiNTATIVES. 



At a meeting of members of the Senate and House of Rep- 
resentatives, convened at the Capitol, on Monday, April 17, 
1865, at noon, Hon. Lafayette S. Foster, of Connecticut, Presi- 
dent pro tern, of the Senate, was called to the chair, and Hon. 
Schuyler Colfax, of Indiana, chosen as Secretary. 

Senator Foot, of Vermont, stated tlie object of the meeting 
to be to make arrangements relative to the funeral of the de- 
ceased President of the United States. 

On motion of Senator Sumner, of Massachusetts, a committee 
of five members from each House was ordered to report at 4 
P. M. to-day, what action it is fitting for this meeting to take. 
The chairman appointed Senators Sumner, of Massachusetts ; 
Harris, of New York ; Johnson, of Maryland ; Ramsey, of 
Minnesota ; and Conness, of California ; and Representatives 
Washburne, of Illinois ; Smith, of Kentucky ; Schenck, of Ohio ; 
Pike, of Maine ; and Coffroth, of Pennsylvania ; and, on mo- 
tion of Representative Schenck, the chairman and secretary 
were added to the committee, and the meeting adjourned till 
4 P. M. 

4 P. M., April 17, 1865. — The meeting convened pursuant to 
adjournment. Mr. Sumner, from the committee heretofore ap- 
pointed, reported that they had selected as pall-bearers, on the 
part of the Senate, Mr. Foster, of Connecticut ; Mr. Morgan, 
of New York; Mr. Johnson, of Maryland; Mr. Yates, of Il- 
linois ; Mr. Wade, of Ohio ; and Mr. Conness, of California. 
On the part of the House: Mr. Dawes, of Massachusetts; Mr. 

59 



60 

CofFrotli, of Pennsylvania ; Mr. Smith, of Kentucky ; Mr. Col- 
fax, of Indiana; Mr. Worthington, of Nevada, and Mr. Wasli- 
burne, of Illinois. 

They also recommended the appointment of one member of 
Congress from each State and Territory to act as a Congres- 
sional Committee, to accompany the remains of the late Presi- 
dent to Illinois, and present the following names as such com- 
mittee, the chairman of this meeting to have the authority of 
appointing hereafter from the States and Territories not repre- 
sented to-day, from which members may be present by the day 
of the funeral. 

The committee also recommended the following as the Con- 
gressional Committee to accompany the remains of the late 
President : Maine, Mr. Pike ; Minnesota, Mr. Ramsey ; New 
Hampshire, Mr. E. H. Rollins ; Oregon, Mr. Williams ; Ver- 
mont, Mr. Foot ; Kansas, Mr. S. Clarke; Massachusetts, Mr, 
Sumner ; West Virginia, Mr. Whaley ; Rhode Island, Mr. 
Anthony; Nevada, Mr. Nye; Connecticut, Mr. Dixon; New 
York, Mr. Harris ; New Jersey, Mr. Newell ; Pennsylvania, 
Mr. Cowan ; Nebraska, Mr. Hitchcock ; Colorado, Mr. Brad- 
ford ; Maryland, Mr. Phelps ; Dakotah, Mr. Todd ; Ohio, Mr. 
Schenck ; Kentucky, Mr. Smith ; Idaho, Mr. Wallace ; Indiana, 
Mr. Julian ; Illinois, the delegation ; Michigan, Mr. Chandler ; 
Iowa, Mr. Harlan ; California, Mr. Shannon. 

They also recommend the adoption of the following resolu- 
tion : 

Resolved, That the Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate and House of Representa- 
tives, with their necessary assistants, be requested to attend the committee ac- 
companying the remains of the late President, and make all the necessary 
arrangements. 

All of which was concurred in unanimously. 
Mr. Sumner, of the same committee, also reported the follow- 
ing, which was unanimously agreed to : 

The members of the Senate and House of Representatives now assembled in 
Washington, humbly confessing their dependence upon Almighty God, who 
rules all that is done for human good, make haste at this informal meeting to 
express the emotions with which they have been filled by the appalling tragedy 



61 

which has deprived the nation of its head, and covered the land with mouiu- 
ing, and, in further declaration of their sentiments, unanimously 

Resolve, 1. That in testimony of veneration and affection for the illus- 
trious dead, who has heen permitted, under Providence, to do so much for his 
country and for liberty, they will unite in the funeral services, and by an ap- 
propriate committee will accompany the remains to the burial in the State from 
which he was taken for the national service. 

2. That in the life of Abraham Lincoln, who, by the benignant favor of 
Republican institutions, rose from humble beginnings to heights of piower and 
fame, they recognize an example of purity, simplicity, and virtue which should 
be a lesson to mankind ; while in his death they recognize a martyr, whose 
memory will become more precious as man learns to prize those principles of 
constitutional order, and those rights — civil, political, and humane — for which 
he was made a sacrifice. 

3. That they invite the President of the United States, by solemn proclama- 
tion, to recommend to the people of the United States to assemble, on a day to 
be appointed by him, publicly to testify their grief, and to dwell on the good 
which has been done on earth by him whom we now mourn. 

4. That a copy of these resolutions be communicated to the President of tho 
United States, and also that a copy he communicated to the aiBicted widow of 
the late President, as an expression of sympathy in her greatest bereavement. 

And tlie mectino; adjourned. 

L. S. FOSTER, Chairman. 
Schuyler Colfax. Secretary. 



MEETING OF CLERGYMEN-fHEIR VISIT TO 
T'RESIDENT JOHNSON. 



The Ministers of the different religious denominations in the 
District of Columbia convened in the First Baptist Church, on 
Thirteenth street, at 9 o'clock, A. M., April 17, 1865, in pur- 
suance of a call of six of their number, which liad been pub- 
lished in the daily papers, as follows : 

To Clergymen of all Religious Denominations in the District of Columbia. 

Beloved Brethren : You are eacli and all respectfully requested to meet 
in the First Baptist Church, on 13th street, Rev. Dr. Gillette, at 9 o'clock, 
Monday morning, the 17th inst., to consider and take such action as may seem 
wise and proper with reference to the sore bereavement our coantry has 
suffered in the sudden decease of our beloved Chief Magistrate, Abraham 
Lincoln. 

P. D. GURLEY, 
Pastor of New York Ave. Preshyterian Church. 
A. D. GILLETTE, 

Pastor of First Baptist Church. 
CHAS. H. HALL, 

Rector of Epiphany Parish. 
W. M. D. RYAN, 
Foundry Methodist Episcopal Church. 
J. G. BUTLER, 

Pastor Lutheran Church. 
WM. H. CHANNING, 

Pastor of Unitarian Church. 

The meeting having been called to order, the Rev. J. G. 
Butler, Pastor of the Lutheran Church, nominated, and, on his 

63 



64 

motion, the Rov. P. D. Gurley, D. D., Pastor of the New York 
Avenue Presbyterian Churcli, was unanimously called to the 
Chair, After a few impressive remarks, he opened the meet- 
ing by a solemn invocation of the Divine blessing. 

On motion, the Rev. C. H. Hall, D. D., was elected Secre- 
tary. 

It was then 

Resolved, That a Committee of one member from each of the religious de 
nominations be appointed to draft and present to the meeting an appropriate 
Preamble and Resolutions, upon the subject for which the Clergy were convened. 

On motion 

Bcsolved, That the Chairman of the Committee be first appointed. 

Whereupon, on nomination, the Rev. Dr. Hall was elected 
Chairman of the Committee. 

On nominations by several members, the following ministers 
were chosen as the Committee : Rev. W. B. Edwards, D. D., 
of the Methodist Church ; Rev. A. D. Gillette, D. D., of the 
Baptist Church ; Rev. Septimus Tustin, D. D., of the Presby- 
terian Church, 0. S. ; Rev. J. N. Coombs, of the Presbyterian 
Church, N. S. ; Rev. Wm. F. Butler, of the African Methodist 
Episcopal Zion Church ; Rev. Daniel Bowers, Methodist Pi'o- 
testant Church ; Rev. J. Geo. Butler, of the Lutheran Church ; 
Rev. Wm. H. Channing, D. D., of the Unitarian Church ; Rev. 
Jabez Fox, of the New Jerusalem Church. 

While the Committee were in session, in the Pastor's study, 
the meeting engaged in religious exercises. 

The Committee returned, and, by their Chairman, reported 
the following Preamble and Resolutions : 

The life of the Chief Magistrate of the Nation has been taken by the hand 
of an assassin, without one circumstance to relieve the barbarity of the deed, 
or save it from the universal execration of the civilized world ; in the hour of 
his respite, after unusual toils in the holiest labors of his high position ; the 
efforts to re-establish peace and quietness in this distracted country ; to extend 
to all offenders against the Constitution and Laws the largest amnesty ; to hold 
out the most generous terms of reconciliation and concord, and to limit, <as far 
as possible by human agencies, the sufferings and miseries of this once happj'' 



Go 

and united people — a murder so remorseless and iniquitous, that pity for the 
misguided criminal is lost in detestation and abhorrence of his crime. 

The sick room of the distinguished Statesman who co-operated with the 
President in all his plans for a restoration of this Union upon a sound and per- 
manent basis, whose helpless condition at the time would have disarmed the 
rage of all ordinary malice, has been invaded by an atrocious murderer, whose 
fell thirst for blood would stop at no amount of violence, and the very excess 
of whose evil passions alone caused his brutal hand to strike wide of his mark ; 
and a peaceful home has been filled in a few short moments with a burden of 
sorrow and anguish too dreadful to contemplate with common control of 
reason. 

A tragedy has been accomplished in each case which fills the land with 
mourning, draws again the gloomy pall over the signs of our national re- 
joicing, leads us to ask in trembling anxiety, Lord! how long? and pol- 
lutes our city with blood which cries from the ground and enters into the eara 
of the Lord of Hosts. Had the victim in either case been an ordinary man 
there would be reason enough for our expression of righteous indignation . 
but when the lives of the chief men of the Nation have been assaulted with, 
intentions so vile and iniquitous, of whose limit we can only form wild con- 
jectures, we are called upon to speak out and unite in expressing the senti- 
ments of all civilized, not to say Christian men : therefore, 

Resolved, That, in our belief, the crime of murder, when committed 
against the person of the Chief Magistrate of a great nation, invades the 
person of God's anointed, and defies the sovereignty of the Almighty, whose 
servant he is ; has received the severest condemnation of the sacred writers:, 
and masses in one black epitome the sum of all the crimes against the 
whole people, thus reached in destroying their head — chosen once, and again 
in this instance, by the votes of a free nation — and leaves all ordinary blood- 
guiltiness lagging far behind it. The apostle teaches us, that ''the Powers 
thai be arc ordained of God." The President of the United States and the Sec- 
retary of State are such ordained Powers, whose persons and lives until novr 
have ever been held sacred and inviolable by all men, good and evil. We ex- 
press more in sorrow than in anger our instinctive detestation of the crime 
and profound grief that the history of this free people and this once peaceful 
city has been stained by a page which exceeds in horror the attempted ox 
successful murders of rulers in any nation of past or modern times. " Ven- 
geance belongeth unto the Lord!" but righteous judgment according to law in 
committed by Him to men. May He show His power in arresting the criminals 
in these assassinations, and purifying our land from the pollution of their guilt! 

Ecsolved, That the Chief Magistrate of this nation, as a man and as our 
Ruler, deserved the sincere respect of all good and loyal citizens for his hon- 
esty and integrity of purpose, manifested in his unremitted endeavors to carry 
the nation through its unexampled trials and perils ; in his unfeigned, hearty 
zeal for the rights of all men and races committed to his trust by Almighty God 
and by the votes of his countrymen ; for his mercy and leniency to all misguided 
and erring citizens; for his humble walk and conversation in his high office; 
for his unabated zeal in tempering the horrors of civil war with the condona 



66 

tions of executive clemency, and for his resolute maintenance of the majesty of 
the law, with the lai'gest possible charity consistent with its sacred promptings. 
The erring and the guilty have lost a friendly heart, to which they could 
always appeal in their hour of anguish and despair. The country haS' lost a 
head, which it trusted with generous impulse from its experience of his honesty 
and ability. Wo mourn a man who will henceforth be enshrined in the grateful 
memories of millions, as second to none of his predecessors in patriotism and 
philanthropy. 

Resolved, That it becomes us, in this troubled hour, to recall our faith in the 
sovereign Providence of Almighty God in guiding the destiny of this great 
nation. He has scourged us bitterly for our sins — in this sad calamity, most 
bitterly. We bow to His divine allotment, and confessing the sins which have 
deserved punishment, pray with one heart, that He, as He alone can do it, may 
bring light out of darkness, and good out of evil, and make the manifold forms 
of human suffering now darkening our land effectual to work out in us and our 
fellow-citizens a true conversion and amendment of life ; that among us, fruits 
meet for repentance may be abundantly brought forth, and that the glory of 
His grace may be made known among all nations, now and to future genera- 
tions. 

Resolved, That as residents of the Capital, we record and proclaim our com- 
mon judgment of reverence and esteem for the late Chief Magistrate, as a citizen 
among us, known to all men for his virtues, kind to all and easy to be entreated, 
ready of access to the humblest of his neighbors, affable and unassuming in his 
address, and bearing his high office in the nation with an evident desire to use 
it for the good of all parties — even the unthankful and the unworthy. If his 
political enemies charge him with errors of the head, we shall search here in vain 
for those who will indict him for errors of the heart: or if there were any such, 
they were those that leaned to clemency and pity. Few men could have passed 
through his trials during this civil war with so sincere and universal respect 
and affection from his fellow-citizens. Few would have wrung the hearts of all 
who knew him by such an untimely fate ! 

Resolved, That we respectfully offer to the distinguished Statesman whose as- 
sassination was intended as the companion act and complement of this great 
crime, our deep sympathy, and the assurance of our prayers for his recovery, 
and that of the son who so bravely cast himself in the path of the destroyer ; 
and for his family, that God would vouchsafe them the comforting strength 
which they need, and sustain them in this hour of their grief and anxiety. 

Resolved, That we present to the widow and family of the late President of 
the United States our assurance of sympathy in their loss— our prayers for 
them, that the Father of us all would take them into Plis keeping, and heal the 
wounds which human affection can only deplore, but may not reach. 

Resolved, That, as Ministers of religion of this District, we commend to the 
congregations under our charge the devout consideration of the dreadful calam- 
ity which has befallen us and them ; that we also commend to their praj^ers the 
afflicted families which have been called to mourn. 

Resolved, That as a mark of respect, we wear the usual badge of mourning 
upon the left arm for sixty days, and that we attend the.funeral services in a body. 



67 • 

Resolved, That whilst, with a depth of sorrow which wo have no words ade- 
quately to express, we deplore the fall of our late Chief Magistrate, we never- 
theless rest in the sincere hope that in the acknowledged ability, unyielding in- 
tegrity, and thoroughly tried patriotism of his successor, our afflicted and sor- 
rowing countrymen will find a happy guaranty that the interests of the Eepublic 
will suffer no detriment by his accession to the Executive chair. 

Resolved, That we, as a body representing the several religious denominations 
of Christians in the District, will lose no time in waiting upon our Chief Magis- 
trate, Andrew Johnson, and tendering to him our warmest sympathies, our 
affectionate confidence, and our most earnest support, with the pledge of our 
constant prayers that his administration may be happy and prosperous, and 
that it may speedily secure the highest aspirations of our afflicted and bleeding 
country by the restoration of unity, peace, and universal freedom. 

Resolved, That in view of the weighty responsibility thus so suddenly de- 
volved upon him, we commend to the devout prayers of all Christian people the 
President of the United States and all others in authority, that God would so 
replenish them with the grace of His Holy Spirit, that they may always incline 
to His will and walk in His ways; that He would endue them plenteouslj' with 
heavenly gifts, grant them in health and prosperity long to live, and finally, 
after this life, to attain everlasting joy and felicity, through Jesus Christ our 
Lord. 

C. H. HALL, Chairman. 
A. D. GILLETTE, Secretary. 
J. GEO. BUTLER, 
W. B. EDWARDS, 
J. N. COOMBS, 
W. H. CHANNING, 
DAN'L BOAVEES, 
WM. F. BUTLER, 
JABEZ FOX, 
SEPTIMUS TUSTIN, 

Committee. 
C.B.Mackee, Presbyter; Alfred Holmead, Grace Church; C. Lepley, Lutheran; 
W. M. D. Ryan, Foundry INI. E. Church ; T. B. McFalls, Assembly's Presbyte- 
rian Church; T. R. Howlett, Calvary Baptist Church; J. H. C. Bonte, Christ 
Church, (Episcopal,) Georgetown; J. H. M. Lemon, Union Chapel; W. Y. 
Brown, Presbyterian, U. S. A.; J. T. Ward, Ninth Street M. P. Church- R. H. 
Ball, Ninth Street M. P. Church; Geo. V. Leech, Waugh M. E. Church; Job 
W. Lambeth, Fletcher M. E. Church; W. B. Evans, Presbyterian, (N. S.); H. 
N. Sipes, East Washington M. E. Church ; Ulysses Ward, Ninth Street M. P. 
Church ; Jas. Mitchell, Minister of tbe M. E. Church ; W. S. Fort, Minister of the 
M. E. Church ; M. J. Gonsalvus, Chaplain, U. S. A. : Sara'l M. Shute, Professor, 
Columbian College ; Mayberry Goheen, Minister of McKendree Chapel ; W. B. 
Matchett, Baptist ; Oliver Cox, Potomac Mission ; Jacob Henn, German Evan- 
gelical Missionary ; Wm. H. Campbell, Presbyterian ; 0. P. Pitcher, ]\Iission- 
ary, Y. M.C. Association; J. N. Davis, Pastor Gorsuch M. E. Church; J. East- 
burn Brown, Episcopal, Georgetown; P. Hall Sweet, M. P. Church; John 



68 

Chester, Presbyterian ; R. R. Gurley, Secretary of the Colonization Society ; 
Ed. C. Merrick, Local Elder M. E. Church; J. M. Muse, City Missionary; B. 
B. Emory, M. E. Church; J. L. Hayghe, M. E. Church; M. A. Turner, M. E. 
Church; B. H. Nadal, M. E. Church; Jos. B. Stitt, M. E. Church; B. Newton 
Brown, M. E. Church; W. B. Edwards, M. E. Church ; W. W. Winchester, Con- 
gregationalist ; W. T. Johnson, Second Baptist Church ; Wm. F. Butler, John 
Wesley Church ; Jno. Lanahan, Presiding Elder, Virginia District; James Peck, 
Pastor Asbury M. E. Church; E. H. Gray, Pastor of E Street Baptist Church; 
John A. Williams, Galbraith Chapel ; William Henry Channing, Unitarian ; 
J. B. Jones, Assistant Pastor, Congress Street Methodist Protestant Church, 
Georgetown, D. C. ; C. W. Walker, Chaplain First Regiment N. H. H. A. ; J. 
N. Coombs, Pastor of Western Presbyterian Church ; Dan'l Bowers, Pastor of 
Congress Street Methodist Protestant Church, Georgetown, D. C. ; John Dickin- 
son, M. E. Church ; C. W. Pritchett, Methodist Church ; Sam'l D. Finckel, G. 
E. Church; J. R. Davenport, officiating at St. John's Church; E. M. Buerger, 
German Evangelical Lutheran Trinity Church ; G. W. Samson, President Co- 
lumbian College ; C. C. Meador, Pastor of Island Baptist Church; Daniel H. 
Parrish, Pastor First Cong. Meth. Church ; T. N. Haskell, Presbyterian Church ; 
R. J. Keeling, Trinity Parish; W. A. Harris, Episcopal; C. R. V. Romondt, 
Reformed Dutch Church ; L. S. Russell, St. John's, Georgetown, D. C. ; B. F. 
Morris, Congregationalist. 

On motion of Rev. Mr. Evans, it was 

Resolved, That a Committee of six be appointed to wait upon the President 
of the United States, and inform him of the desire of this meeting to pay him 
a visit, and to ascertain at what hour it will be convenient for him to re- 
ceive us. 

Tlie Committee of six was appointed by the Chairman, as 
follows : Rev. W. B. Evans, (chairman,) Rev. Drs. Tustin and 
Channing, and Rev. Messrs. Howlett, Brown, (Meth.,) and 
Holmead. 

Resolved, That the Preamble and Resolutions of the Committee, as amended, 
be adopted and signed by those ministers who are present. 

Resolved, That the ministers of the District who are absent from this meet- 
ing are invited to unite with us in signing these Resolutions. 

On motion of Eev. J. Lanahan, 

Resolved, That the Chairman and Secretary of this meeting be and they are 
hereby appointed a Committee to communicate to the family of the late Presi- 
dent, and also to the Secretary of State, the proceedings of this meeting. 

The Committee of six returned, and reported by their chair- 
man, Rev. Mr. Evans, that they had been favored with an inter- 



69 

view with the President, and that it was his desire to see the 
members of this body at once, at his room in the Treasury 
Building ; whereupon, on motion, it was resolved to adjourn, 
after appropriate devotions, to visit the President of the United 
States. 

After the members of tlie Convention had been severally 
introduced to the President, the Rev. Dr. Gurley, their Chair- 
man, addressed him as follows : 

Me. Peesident : The persons now standing around you are Ministers of the 
Gospel of different religious denominations, residing in the District of Columbia. 
We have been in session in one of our Churches for several hours to-day, con- 
sidering what utterance we ought to make, and what testimony we ought to 
bear, touching the sore and sudden bereavement which has come upon the 
Nation. Our meeting was large, solemn, and tearful ; our proceedings were 
delightfully harmonious ; and we unanimously and cordially adopted certain 
resolutions pertaining to our late lamented Chief Magistrate, and to you his 
successor in ofSce, which the Secretary of our meeting will now read in your 
hearing. 

Here the foregoing Resolutions were read by the Rev. Dr. 
Hall, and when the reading was finished. Dr. Gurley resumed 
his address, and said : 

After the reading of these resolutions, I hardly need to add anything to what 
I have already said. These resolutions, Mr. President, convey to you our feel- 
ings, the feelings of our very heart. As we carried your predecessor daily in 
the arms of our faith to God, so will we carry you to Him also, and pray for 
you without ceasing, that the same hand which guided him so wisely and so 
well, may guide you in like manner. As you enter upon the grave and respon- 
sible duties of the position you have so unexpectedly been called to fill, and as 
you continue in those duties, we shall remember you in our closets ; we shall 
remember you before our family altars; we shall remember you in our social 
meetings for prayer and praise ; we shall remember you in our sanctuaries, and 
in the presence of our congregations, upon each returning Sabbath, and the 
burden of our united petitions on your behalf will be, that the God of our 
fathers, and our God, will give you that wisdom "which is first pure, then 
peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without 
partiality, and without hypocrisy." May that wisdom be your guide from the 
beginning to the end of your term of office, and, under its guidance, may your 
administration redound to the advancement of the cause of truth and justice, 
of law and order, of liberty and good government, of pure and undefiled re- 
ligion, and may the day soon come, and you live to see it, when the nation shall 
emerge from its trials with augmented purity and vigor, and be re-established 



70 

upon a foundation that never can be moved — the foundation of liberty and 
righteousness, of unity and peace. 

After a pause, and in perfect silence of the interested group 
of nearly sixty ministers of all denominations, the President, 
evidently oppressed by his emotions, began somewhat slowly, 
in a low voice, which grew earnest as he proceeded, and reached 
every heart, nearly as follows : 

Geutlemek : I feel overwhelmed by this occasion, and utterly incompetent 
to the task before me, of making a suitable reply to you : and it may be that 
silence and the deep feelings of my own heart are the best answer I can give 
you. I thank you for this visit and this expression of your sentiments. I feel 
deeply solemn in view of this whole scene, and in listening to the eloquent 
words which have been spoken and read to me. I feel overwhelmed by thoughts 
of the position in which I am so suddenly placed and the duties which have de- 
volved upon me. But amid all this natural feeling, the assurance which you have 
been pleased to give me, that I shall have the countenance, the assistance, and the 
prayers of such a body as this, is most gratifying to my heart. It is possible, it is 
natural that you should desire to know something of the future administration 
of affairs, and I can only say to you, as I have said to others, that my course 
in the past must be my guaranty of what I hope to do in the future. I call 
upon you to take notice that I have entered upon my office with no manifesto — 
no proclamation, with no propositions of changes or new policy of my own. In 
entering on the performance of duties so important and responsible as those be- 
fore me, I can only say to you, that the course of events must decide, as they 
arise, what shall be the measures best adapted to promote the good of the 
country. My whole life has been based on the profound belief, in which I have 
never wavered, that there is a great principle of right, which lies at the basis 
of all things. I have always trusted to that principle as the certain support of 
all who abide by it — the great principle of right, and justice, and truth. I shall 
trust to it, and guide the administration of public affairs in conformity to it. 
I should feel anxious for the future, but that I have an abiding confidence in 
the strength of that principle, and in Him who founded it. I thank you for 
the assurance which you have been pleased to offer me. I have heard the fer- 
vent words which you have uttered and read to me of your love for the great 
man who is gone, and I feel them all ; your opinions of his mercy and clemency, 
and I respond to them heartily. The true point which is to be made by us is, 
where these must stop, when they shall be conformed to the rules of right and 
justice. It is the great question of the hour, and I shall try to administer the 
government in such a manner that it shall deal out to all, with impartial hand, 
that which the merits of each demand. In my opinion the time has come 
when you and I must understand and must teach that treason is a crime, and 
not a mere difference of political opinions. I have listened with emotion to 
the language in which you have expressed so clearly your abhorrence of the 
crime which has deprived the nation of its Chief Magistrate and filled the land 



with mourning. You have characterized it justly, but it may not be too much 
to say it is diabolical — for in fact this deed was devilish. We mourn together 
to-day over the calamity that has fallen upon the country. I feel that our be- 
loved country will pass through the troubles of the present. I say again that 
I put my trust in the great principle which underlies all our institutions, and 
believe that we shall come out of this struggle to a better and higher life. The 
government has not accomplished its mission — but under the benignant smiles 
of the Almighty it will yet fulfil it. The country will triumph in the end, and 
these great principles will be firmly established. 

Again I cordially thank j^ou for your presence on this occasion, and for the 
expression of your sympathies in this hour of the nation's peril. I trust that 
in confidence in the great principles of which I have spoken, and with your 
countenance and prayers, I shall be enabled to succeed in restoring peace and 
concord to this now distracted and unhappy country. 

The individuals present responded to certain portions of his 
remarks with a fervent amen, and at their conclusion again 
approached, and with each a word of encouragement and bless- 
ing took leave of the President, who seemed greatly cheered 
by the promised aid of the representatives of the religious 
bodies of the community, in the arduous labors to which he had 
been so suddenly and sadly called. 

P. D. GURLEY, Chairman. 

Chas. H. Hall, Secretary, 

A delegation of colored pastors, members of the National 
Theological Institute for colored ministers, waited upon Presi- 
dent Johnson, a few days after President Lincoln's death, and 
were introduced by Rev. B. Turny, D. D., one of their number, 
who said : 

In behalf of these brethren, and of others who are not present, allow me, sir, 
to present you with a copy of the following resolutions adopted by them, 
expressive of their grief at the death of the late President, and their gratitude at 
the emancipation wrought in connection with his administration ; containing 
also a reference to his expression of devout regard for the sacred scriptures as 
the book of God and the revelation of a Saviour, and a declaration of their spirit 
of loyalty and fidelity and devotion to the government with reference to the 
future : 

Resolved, That the sudden and mysterious death by the hand of an assassin 
of the great and good man, Abraham Lincoln, the President of the United 
States, whom we had learned to revere and love as a benefactor, a friend, and a 
father, has pierced our hearts with the most poignant grief. 

Resolved, That we express our liveliest gratitude that God has permitted us 
in Ilis Providence to witness the events relating to the emancipation and ele\a- 



72 

tion of the colored people of this country, which in our own grateful remem- 
brance, as well as in the history of the nation and of the world, will ever be 
inseparable from the name and acts of Abraham Lincoln. 

Resolved, That of the memorable sayings of our lamented President, none is 
remembered by us with greater interest than the words addressed by him a few 
months before his death to a delegation of colored men, who had presented him 
with a Bible, in which he affectionately commended the sacred volume to our 
regard as the book of God, and the revelation to man of a " Saviour," and of 
" all things most desirable for man's welfare, here and hereafter; " and we deem 
it suitable that we improve the mysterious event by which he has been taken 
from ITS, by earnestly entreating the colored people of our land and all others 
to take this holy book as their guide, to seek to conform their hearts and lives 
to its heavenly teachings, and to receive, in humble faith and submission and 
obedience, the Saviour whom it reveals, recognizing that in this alone they can 
secure the highest of all possible blessings. 

Resolved, That we extend to the bereaved family of him whom we mourn our 
heartfelt condolence, praying that the widow's God and the Father of the 
fatherless will be to them the source of all consolation and of all blessing. 

Resolved, That, as it is with devout thankfulness that we record the unwaver- 
ing fidelity of the colored people to the national government during the des- 
perate struggle which has been made for its overthrow, we express the fervent 
hope that, actuated by the same spirit, they may ever continue to be its stead- 
fast and zealous friends and supporters. 

Resolved, That we will give to President Johnson the support of our prayers, 
and within our several spheres of action our earnest efforts in the work of 
establishing throughout the land the principles of liberty and peace, justice 
and equalitj? of right, and of promoting the various purposes of a wise and 
good and righteous government. 

President Johnson thanked them for their manifestations of 
respect and regard, and said, in conclusion of his reply to them, 
" I hope God will continue to conduct us till the great end shall 
be accomplished, and the work reach its great consummation. 



THE PRESIDENT'S REMAINS IN STATE. 



An unparalleled throng manifested their homage and affection 
for the late President, whose remains lay in state in the East 
Room of the Presidential Mansion. Although some eight 
hours were allowed for visitors to pass and gaze upon the fa- 
miliar features of the dead, thousands were subjected to painful 
disappointment. Death had fastened into his frozen face all the 
character and idiosyncrasy of life. He had not changed one 
line of his grave, grotesque countenance, nor smoothed out a 
feature. The hue was rather bloodless and leaden ; but he was 
always sallow. The dark eyebrows seemed abruptly arched. 
The mouth was shut, like that of one who had put his foot down 
firm, and so were the eyes, which looked as calm as slumber. 
The collar was short and turned over the stiff elastic cravat, and 
whatever energy or humor or tender gravity marked the living 
face it hardened into its pulseless outline. No corpse in the 
world was better prepared according to appearances. The 
white satin around it reflected sufficient light upon the face to 
show that death was really tliere ; but there were sweet roses 
and early magnolias, and the balmiest of lilies strewn around, 
as if the flowers had begun to bloom even upon his coffin. 

The body lay upon a catafalque in the centre of the room, 
which presented a sepulchral appearance. The irregularly and 
gracefully arched canopy of this structure, in its greatest 
height, was eleven feet, and was supported by four posts, some 
seven feet in height, and over which the roof or canopy projected 
at each end about one foot. Under this canopy, and upon a spa- 
cious dais or platform, eleven feet long, four feet wide, and three 

13 



74 

feet high, rested the coffin. Extending entirely around this dais 
was another platform, about two feet wide and eight inches high, 
and serving as a step upon which to stand in viewing the corpse. 
The distance between the posts supporting the canopy was six- 
teen feet in its length and ten feet in its width. The coffin laid 
with the head to the north and the feet to the south, and was six 
feet six inches in length, and one foot and a half across the 
shoulders. It was of mahogany, and lined with lead, covered 
with superb black broadcloth, and with four massive silver 
handles upon each side. In the spaces between the handles were 
ornamental figures, formed with silver cord, resembling the leaf 
of the shamrock, and in the centre of each a large silver star, and 
there was a silver star upon each end of the coffin. There was a 
heavy bullion fringe extending entirely around the edge of the 
upper part of the coffin, and pendant bullion tassels upon silver 
cords fell gracefully from the fringe before the apex of each 
figure containing the star. A row of silver-headed tacks, 
some two inches from the edge, extended the whole length of the 
cover on each side. The large silver plate was in the centre of 
a shield formed with silver tacks, on which is the inscription • 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 

Sixteenth Pkesident of the United States. 

Born July 12, 1809. 

Died April 15, 1865. 

This was encircled by a shield formed of silver tacks. The 
whole was really beautiful, and finished with exceedingly good 
taste and fine workmanship. The face-lid was hung with fine 
silver hinges in the form of stars. The inside of the lid was 
raised or cushioned with white satin, and the centre piece 
ornamented with black and white silk braid, fastened with stars 
at the corners. The pillow and the lower surface of the coffin 
were covered with white silk ; the sides and upper surface with 
plaited satin The corpse was dressed in the black suit in which 
the President was first inaugurated. The turned-down collar 
and the black cravat were adjusted precisely as they were wont 
to be seen in his life- time. The face and features looked quite 



75 

natural, and much credit was due to the embalmer, Dr. Charles 
D. Brown. 

Tlie canopy of the catafalque was covered on the upper side 
with black alpaca, and on the inner side with white fluted satiu. 
The black alpaca drapery of the canopy was festooned with six- 
teen rosettes. The heavy alpaca curtains of the catafalque, fall- 
ing from the canopy to the floor, were looped back to the corner 
supports with bands of crape. The dais upon which the cofiin 
rested was covered with rich black cloth. The lower surround- 
ing step, or platform, was covered with black muslin. A magni- 
ficent wreath of intertwined laurel and cedar, decorated with 
camelias, entirely encircled the coffin, resting upon the dais. A 
smaller wreath, composed of cedar and laurel, with interwoven 
flowers, laid at the head of the coffin. Upon the foot of the 
coffin was deposited a large, gracefully-formed anchor, exqui- 
sitely composed of sweet and beautiful flowers, wrought with 
evergreens. 

The East Room was draped with a taste that left nothing to 
be desired. The chandeliers at each end of the room were en- 
tirely covered with black alpaca, and all the pilasters were 
covered from ceiling to floor with the same material. The eight 
grand mirrors were entirely covered, the frames with alpaca and 
the glass with white barege. The usual superb drapery and 
decorations of the windows were entirely covered, from cornice 
to the carpet, with black barege. The drapery of the spacious 
doors, opening into the grand entrance hall, closed for the oc- 
casion, was similar to that of the windows. The mantel-pieces 
supporting the mirrors were heavily draped with alpaca depend- 
ing to the floor. 

The immense concourse that thronged to this mournful and 
affecting scene entered the eastern gate, passed under the 
portico in the grand hall, thence through the Green Room into 
the East Room, approaching the foot of the coffin, and there, 
dividing into two columns, stepped upon the lower platform, 
passed along on either side, caught a passing view of the feat- 
ures of him they had so loved and revered, and then passed out 
through the northern door of the East Room, and from the 
entry through the window upon a temporary staircase and stag- 
ing, and into the avenue through the western gateway. Tlie 



76 

entire pavement was densely packed with a thronging mass 
during the entire day, the column extending nearly the whole 
time from the Presidential Mansion to the southern front of the 
Treasury building, a distance of more than half a mile. This 
column was composed of persons of all ages and every rank of 
life ; and the scene in the East Room, as these moving men, 
women, and children sobbed and wept aloud in their hasty pas- 
sage through the room, was affecting beyond the power of words 
to portray. The war-worn soldiers and officers were especially 
mournful in their bearing. 

There were so many thousands unable to see the corpse 
that it was determined to place the remains in state in the 
Rotunda of the Capitol for a few days prior to their con- 
veyance to Springfield, Illinois, and a catafalque similar to that 
in the East Room was constructed for that purpose. 

The following officers representing the army and navy were 
charged with the superintendence of the remains -while lying in 
state : On the part of the army : Gen. Hitchcock, Gen. Easton, 
Capt. Penrose, Capt. Van Lear, and Lieut. Col. W. Sinclair. 
On the part of the navy : Commander E. Stone, of the monitor 
Montauk ; Lieut. McNair, Lieut. A. B. Young, and Lieut. N. 
H. Farquhar. 



FUNERAL SERVICES AT THE PRESIDENT'S 

HOUSE. 



Sad and solemn was the scene which the East Room presented, 
and yet suggestive of hope and confidence. A dead Chief 
Magistrate, who had fallen in the culmination of his wishes and 
exertions to restore to peace and joy a bleeding country ; a 
living successor, who succeeded to high place for the administra- 
tion of Government and the enforcement of the obligations of 
law, surrounded by venerable Senators, an illustrious Council, 
and the Executive Head of each State of which the loyal 
Union is composed. Treason may destroy a President, but 
constitutional Government and Liberty still live. 

All that remained of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of 
these United States, lay on the grand and gloomy catafalque, 
which was relieved, however, by choice flowers with which a 
kind Providence blesses the world. Around, the apartment 
was made sepulchral by the habiliments of woe. The specta- 
tors of the sorrowful scene were not merely the representatives 
of our people in Congress and of the States ; the Executive 
successor and the Cabinet Ministers ; the Chief Justice of the 
United States and his associates on the bench of that venerated 
tribunal ; the chieftains who protect our homes by service on 
the field and ocean ; the clergy, a host of pious men, who ad- 
minister at the altar for our spiritual well-being on earth, and 
to guard us to the realms of bliss beyond sublunary things ; 
multitudes in various positions in the civil affairs of State, and 
distinguished citizens from private life, but an imposing array 

77 



of ambassadors, with their less elevated «f/aeAes, with gorgeous 
decorations, whose imperial masters had sent them to cultivate 
peaceful relations with this Western Republic. The scene, 
melancholy, yet grand and imposing, touched the tenderest sen- 
sibilities, as the eye glanced over the circle of afSicted relations 
and dear friends whose sorrows created and met with so deep 
a sympathy. A son, attaining a noble manhood, affectionately 
grieved a loving father lost ; Secretaries, whose relations had 
been intimate, a part of his household, mourned the deprivation 
of a friend ; and all, of whatever degree, sorrowed for a Chief 
who had entwined himself with the throbbing heart of a great 
Republic. 

The East Room, the same in which Harrison and Taylor lay 
in state, was far more artistically prepared for the coming 
ceremonies. The plates of its four large mirrors were covered 
with white crape, while their frames were hidden by the falling 
folds of a black drapery, similar to that which covered the 
blood-red damascene and white lace curtains of the windows. 
The Venetian shutters being partly closed, the rich red of the 
walls stained the partially admitted light, already toned down 
by the heavy masses of black, and through the dark shadows 
of the catafalque the light seemed to struggle in dim religious 
rays, that stole rather than leaped back from the silver orna- 
ments of the coffin and the shrouded surfaces of the polished 
mirrors. 

What added greatly to the awing effect of the room, was a 
series of seats or steps which were covered with black, and 
partitioned off, as it were, with thin white lines, descending from 
the northern, eastern, and southern sides of the room, to about 
five feet of the base of the black temple of death placed in the 
centre of the room. Along the western side of these were 
placed fifteen chairs, covered with black, and ranged along the 
wall for the use of the members of the Press. 

The series of seats or steps partitioned off by lines of white 
were reserved for the various groups expected, by a card being 
laid on each, with writing, stating the use for which it was in- 
tended. 

The northwestern corner was reserved for the pall bearers ; 



next, to the eastward, was the partition ticketed for the New 
York delegation ; next came that of the Army and Navy, then 
that of the Judiciary, and behind these, officers of the Sanitary 
and Cliristian Commissions ; next were stationed Governors 
of various States and Territories, Heads of Bureaus, Assistant 
Secretaries, then the Diplomatic Corps, beside which were the 
President and Cabinet, and alongside of these stood the Sena- 
tors, beyond wliich were members of the House of Representa- 
tives, clergymen from all parts of the United States, and the 
city authorities. 

The first to enter the room were the ministers of religion, 
among which were clergymen of all denominations, and from 
every State in the Union. 

The New York delegation next entered. It was composed 
of Simeon Draper, General Strong, Moses Taylor, Jas. Brown, 
John Jacob Astor, Samuel Sloane, William E. Dodge, Moses 
H. Grinnell, Jonathan Sturges, Charles P. Daley, Edwards 
Pierpont, William M. Evarts, Denning Duer, Charles H. Rus- 
sell, and S. Blatchford. 

The following gentlemen appeared as a special delegation 
from the New York Chamber of Commerce : Carl H. Waller, 
William Barton, F. S. Winston, William Borden, James M. 
Green, Alderman Norton, Councillor Cost, Councillor Brady, 
Hon. A. M. Bradford, William Verrailye, Hiram Walbridge, 
William Orton, xVldcrmau Bryce, Councillor Lent, Councillor 
Peterson, Thomas Levey, and General Strong. 

Among the Governors of States were, in tlie allotted par- 
tition, Fenton, New York ; Oglesby, Illinois ; Stone, Iowa ; 
Parker, New Jersey; Andrew, Massachusetts; Brough, Ohio ; 
Buckingham, Connecticut ; Pierpoint, Virginia. 

There were many Senators present. Among them were 
Senators Foster, Ramsey, Harris, Chandler, Cowan, Sumner, 
McDougal, Saulsbury, Wade, Johnson, Creswell, Williams, 
Norton, Stewart, Nye, Conness, and Collamer. 

Among the members of the lower House were Speaker Colfax 
and many others. 

Beside President Jolmson stood the Hon. Preston King and 
ex-Vice President Hamlin. 



80 

The members and executiye officers of the United States 
Sanitary Commission attended the ceremonies at the Executive 
Mansion in a bodj. 

All these various groups were nearly placed in their appointed 
sections when the Cabinet and the Chief Justice of the United 
States entered with the new President. As the various Secre- 
taries filed in, all eyes were turned upon them, and when the 
last had entered, a slight but perceptible stir ran through the 
audience, showing that the very absence of him who had been 
selected as the fellow victim of the dead man in the room 
brought him the more vividly back to the memory of those 
present ; and as the courtly Corps Diplomatique entered and 
looked at the assembly, one could see that they felt there was 
nothing wanting but himself alone. 

Lieutenant General Grant sat about five feet from the base 
of the catafalque ; near him were Admirals Farragut and Golds- 
borough, and at the other end of the room was Major General 
Hitchcock. 

Mrs. Lincoln did not enter the East Room, being too ill from 
prostration and an incipient fever, brought on by the awful 
excitement and sorrow to which she had been sul^jected. 

The two sons of Mr. Lincoln, Master Thaddeus and Captain 
Robert Lincoln, both attended ; but it was easy to see that it 
required all the resolution the latter could summon to master 
the grief that agitated him. 

All the representatives of foreign governments, ambassadors, 
secretaries, and attaches, were present, in full court costume, 
and their high-collared and heavy -gilt coats, their vests deco- 
rated with various orders, rendered them a glittering group 
in an assemblage dressed in sombre black. 

There were in all about six hundred persons in the room. 
Of these six hundred hardly fifty but were known as leading 
men of the country, either in commerce, laws, ethics, literature, 
statesmanship, or in practical generalship on sanguinary fields. 
Diplomacy, arts, arms, science, all of to-day, all of living in- 
terest, a part of the breathing, throbbing age, were there ; and 
as these men stood up, and the ambassadors leaned forth lo 



81 

scan the scene, no eye that dropped upon the stilled face in the 
coffin but was moistened. 

Amid such a scene the Rev. Dr. C. H. Hall, Rector of the 
Church of the Epiphany, arose and read the following portions 
of the Episcopal service for the burial of the dead : 

Lord, let me know my end, and the number of my days ; that I may be cer- 
tified how long I have to live. 

Behold, thou hast made my days as it were a span long, and mine age is even 
as nothing in respect of thee ; and verily every man living is altogether vanity. 

For man walketh in a vain shadow, and disquieteth himself in vain ; he 
heapeth up riches, and cannot tell who shall gather them. 

And now, Lord, what is my hope ? Truly my hope is even in thee. 

Deliver me from all my offences ; and make me not a rebuke unto the foolish. 

When thou with rebuke dost chasten man for sin, thou makest his beauty to 
consume away, like as it were a moth fretting a garment ; every man is there- 
fore but vanity. 

Hear my prayer, Lord, and with thine ears consider my calling ; hold not 
thy peace at my tears ; 

For I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were. 

O spare me a little, that I may recover my strength, before I go hence, and 
be no more seen. 

Lord, thou hast been our refuge, from one generation to another. 

Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever the earth and the world 
were made, thou art God from everlasting, and world without end. 

Thou turnest man to destruction ; again thou sayest, Come again, ye children 
of men. 

For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday, seeing that it is past 
as a watch in the night. 

As soon as thou scatterest them they are even as a sleep, and fade away sud- 
denly like the grass. 

In the morning it is green, and groweth up ; but in the evening it is cut 
down, dried up, and withered. 

For we consume away in thy displeasure ; and are afraid at thy wrathful 
indignation. 

Thou hast set our misdeeds before thee, and our secret sins in the light of thy 
countenance. 

For when thou art angry all our days are gone; we bring our years to an 
end as it were a tale that is told. 

The days of our age are threescore years and ten ; and though men be so 
strong that they come to fourscore years, yet is their strength then but labor 
and sorrow ; so soon passeth it away and we are gone. 

So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. 

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost ; 

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. 
Amen. 

6 



82 

Then followed the Lesson, taken out of the fifteenth chapter 
of the first Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians : 

Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that 
slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the 
dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every 
man in his own order: Christ the first fruits ; afterward they that are Christ's, 
at his coming. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered the king- 
dom to God, even the Father ; when he shall have put down all rule, and all 
authority, and power. For he must reign till he hath put all enemies under 
his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For he hath put all 
things under his feet. But when he saith, all things are put under him, it is 
manifest that he is excepted which did put all things under him. And when 
all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject 
unto Him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all. Else what 
shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? Why 
are they then baptized for the dead? and why stand we in jeopardy every 
hour? I protest by your rejoicing, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I 
die daily. If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, 
what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not? let us eat and drink, for to- 
morrow we die. Be not deceived ; evil communications corrupt good manners. 
Awake to righteousness, and sin not ; for some have not the knowledge of God. 
I speak this to your shame. But some man will say. How are the dead raised 
up ? and with what body do they come ? Thou fool ! that which thou sowest 
is not quickened, except it die. And that which thou sowest, thou sowest 
not that body that shall be, but bare grain ; it may chance of wheat, or of some 
other grain. But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every 
seed his own body. All flesh is not the same flesh ; but there is one kind of flesh 
of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. There 
are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestial ; but the glory of the celestial is 
one, and the glory of the terrestial is another. There is one glory of the sun, 
and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars ; for one star 
differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. 
It is sown in corruption ; it is raised in incorruption: it is sown in dishonor; it 
is raised in glory ; it is sown in weakness ; it is raised in power : it is sown a 
natural body ; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there 
is a spiritual body. And so it is written. The first man Adam was made a 
living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit, that was 
not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which 
is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy ; the second man is the Lord 
from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they that are earthy: and as is the 
heavenly such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the 
image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this 
I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God ; neither 
doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery : we shall 
not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an 
eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised 



83 

incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on in- 
corruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corrupti- 
ble shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immor- 
tality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written. Death is swal- 
lowed up in victory. death, where is thy sting? grave, where is thy 
victory ? The sting of death is sin ; and the strength of sin is the Law. But 
thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding 
in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain 
in the Lord. 

Man, that is born of a woman, hath but a short time to live, and is full of 
misery. He cometh up, and is cut down like a flower ; he fleeth as it were a 
shadow, and never continueth in one stay. 

In the midst of life we are in death ; of whom may we seek for succor, but of 
thee, Lord, who for our sins art justly displeased? 

Yet, Lord God, most holy, Lord most mighty, holy and most merciful 
Saviour, deliver us not into the bitter pains of eternal death. 

Thou knowest. Lord, the secrets of our hearts ; shut not thy merciful ears to 
our prayer; but spare us, Lord, most holy, God most mighty, holy and 
merciful Saviour, thou most worthy Judge eternal, suffer us not, at our last 
hour, for any pains of death, to fall from thee. 

Bishop Simpson, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, after 
the reading of the Scripture lessons, offered the following 
prayer : 

Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, as with smitten and suffering hearts 
we come into Thy presence, we pray in the name of our blessed Redeemer, 
that thou wouldst pour upon us Thy Holy Spirit, that all our thoughts and acts 
may be acceptable in thy sight. We adore Thee for all Thy glorious perfec- 
tions. We praise Thee for the revelation which Thou has given us in Thy 
works and in Thy Word. By Thee all worlds exist. All things live through 
Thee. Thou raisest up kingdoms and empires and castest them down. By 
Thee kings reign and princes decree righteousness. In Thy hand are the issues 
of life and death. We confess before Thee the magnitude of our sins and trans- 
gressions, both as individuals and as a nation. We implore Thy mercy for the 
Bake of our Redeemer. Forgive us all our iniquities ; if it please Thee remove 
Thy chastening hand from us, and, though we be unworthy, turn away from us 
Thine anger, and let the light of Thy countenance again shine upon us. 

At this solemn hour, as we mourn for the death of our President, who was 
stricken down by the hand of an assassin, grant us also the grace to bow in 
submission to Thy holy will. May we recognize Thy hand high above all hu- 
man agencies, and Thy power as controlling all events, so that the wrath of 
man shall praise Thee, and that the remainder of wrath Thou wilt restrain. 
Humbled under the sufferings we have endured and the great afflictions through 
which we have passed, may we not be called upon to offer other sacrifices. May 
the lives of all our officers, both civil and military, be guarded by Thee ; and 



84 

let no violent band fall upon any of them. Mourning as we do for the 
mighty dead by whose remains we stand, we would yet lift our hearts unto 
Thee in grateful acknowledgment for Thy kindness in giving us so great and 
noble a commander. Thou art glorified in good men, and we praise Thee that 
Thou didst give him unto us so pure> so honest, so sincere, and so transparent 
in character. We praise Thee for that kind, affectionate heart which always 
swelled with feelings of enlarged benevolence. We bless Thee for what Thou 
didst enable him to do ; that Thou didst give him wisdom to select for his ad- 
visers a.nd for his officers, military and naval, those men through whom our 
country has been carried through an unprecedented conflict. 

We bless Thee for the success which has attended all their efforts, and victories 
wbiali have crowned our armies ; and that Thou didst spare Thy servant until 
he could behold the dawning of that glorious morning of peace and prosperity 
which is about to shine upon our land ; that he was enabled to go up as Thy 
servant of old upon Llount Pisgah, and catch a glimpse of the promised land. 
Though his lips are silent and his arm is powerless, we thank Thee that Thou 
didst strengthen him to speak words that cheer the hearts of the suffering and 
the oppressed, and to write that declaration of emancipation which has given 
him an immortal reward ; that though the hand of the assassin has struck him 
to the ground, it could not destroy the work which he has done, nor forge again 
the chains which he has broken. And while we mourn that be has passed 
away, we are grateful that his work was so fully accomplished, and that the 
acts which he has performed will forever remain. 

We implore Thy blessing upon his bereaved family. Thou husband of the 
widow. Bless her who, broken-hearted and sorrowing, feels oppressed with un- 
utterable anguish. Cheer the loneliness of the pathway which lies before her, 
and grant to her such consolations of Thy spirit and such hopes, through the 
resurrection, that she shall feel that "Earth hath no sorrows which Heaven 
cannot heal." 

Let Thy blessing rest upon his sons ; pour upon them the spirit of wisdom ; be 
Thou the guide of their youth ; prepare them for usefulness in society, for happi- 
ness in all their relations. May the remembrance of their father's counsels, and 
their father's noble acts, ever stimulate them to glorious deeds, and at last may 
they be heirs of everlasting life. 

Command Thy rich blessings to descend upon the successor of our lamented 
President. Grant unto him wisdom, energy, and firmness for the responsible 
duties to which he has been called ; and may he, his cabinet officers, and gene- 
rals who shall lead his armies, and the brave soldiers in the field, be so guided 
by Thy counsels that they shall speedily complete the great work which he had 
so successfully carried forward. 

Let Thy blessing rest upon our country. Grant unto us all a fixed and strong 
determination never to cease our efforts until our glorious Union shall be fully 
re-established. 

Around the remains of our beloved President may we covenant together by 
every possible means to give ourselves to our country's service until every ves- 
tige of this rebellion shall have been wiped out, and until slavery, its cause, 
shall be forever eradicated. 



85 

Preserve us, we pray Thee, from all complications with foreign nations. Give 
us hearts to act justly towards all nations, and grant unto them hearts to act 
justly towards us, that universal peace and happiness may fill our earth. We 
rejoice, then, in this inflicting dispensation Thou hast given, as additional evi- 
dence of the strength of our nation. We bless Thee that no tumult has arisen, 
and in peace and harmony our Government moves onward ; and that Thou hast 
shown that our Republican Government is the strongest upon the face of the 
earth. In this solemn presence may we feel that we, too, are immortal! May 
the sense of our responsibility to God rest upon us ; may we repent of every 
sin ; and may we consecrate anew unto Thee all the time and all the talents 
which Thou hast given us ; and may we so fulfil our allotted duties that finally 
we may have a resting place with the good, and wise, and great who now. sur- 
round that glorious throne ! Hear us while we unite in praying with Thy 
Church in all lands and in all ages, even as Thou hast taught us, saying : 

Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom 
come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily 
bread. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not 
into temptation, but deliver us from evil : for thine is the kingdom, the power, 
and the glory, forever. Amen. 

Eev. Dr. Gurley delivered tlic following 

FUNERAL address: 

As we stand here to-day, mourners around this cofiiu and around the lifeless 
remains of our beloved Chief Magistrate, we recognize and we adore the sov- 
ereignty of God. His throne is in the heavens, and His kingdom ruleth over 
all. He hath done, and he hath permitted to be done, whatsoever He pleased. 
"Clouds and darkness are round about Him; righteousness and judgment are 
the habitations of His throne." His way is in the sea, and His path in the 
great waters; and his footsteps are not known. " Canst thou by searching find 
out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection ? It is as high as 
heaven ; what canst thou do ? Deeper than hell ; what canst thou know ? The 
measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea. If He cut 
off, and shut up, or gather together, then who can hinder Him ? For He know- 
eth vain men; He seeth wickedness also ; will He not then consider it?" We 
bow before His infinite majesty. We bow, we weep, we worship. 

" Where reason falls, with all her powers, 
There faith ijrevails, and love adores." 

It was a cruel, cruel hand, the dark hand of the assassin, which smote our 
honored, wise, and noble President, and filled the land with sorrow. But above 
and beyond that hand there is another which we must see and acknowledge. 
It is the chastening hand of a wise and a faithful Father. He gives us the bit- 
ter cup. And the cup that our Father has given us, shall we not drink it? 

" God of the just, Thou gavest us the cup : 
Wc yield to Thy behest and drink it up." 



86 

"Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth." 0, how these blessed words have 
cheered, and strengthened, and sustained us through all these long and weary 
years of civil strife, while our friends and brothers on so many ensanguined 
fields were falling and dying for the cause of liberty and union ! Let them 
cheer, and strengthen, and sustain us to-day. True, this new sorrow and chas- 
tening has come in such an hour and in such a way as we thought not, and it 
bears the impress of a rod that is very heavy, and of a mystery that is very 
deep. That such a life should be sacrificed, at such a time, by such a foul and 
diabolical agency ; that the man at the head of the nation, whom the people 
had learned to trust with a confiding and loving confidence, and upon whom 
more than upon any other were centered, under God, our best hope for the true 
and speedy pacification of the country, the restoration of the Union, and the 
return of harmony and love ; that he should be taken from us, and taken just 
as the prospect of peace was brightly opening upon our torn and bleeding 
country, and just as he was beginning to be animated and gladdened with the 
hope of ere long enjoying, with the people, the blessed fruit and reward of his 
and their toil, and care, and patience, and self-sacrificing devotion to the inter- 
ests of liberty and the Union— 0, it is a mysterious and most af&icting visita- 
tion. But it is our Father in heaven, the God of our fathers, and our God, who 
permits us to be so suddenly and sorely smitten ; and we know that His judg- 
ments are right, and that in faithfulness He has afflicted us. In the midst of 
our rejoicings we needed this stroke, this dealing, this discipline ; and there- 
fore He has sent it. Let us remember, our affliction has not come forth of the 
dust, and our trouble has not sprung out of the ground. Through and beyond 
all second causes let us look, and see the sovereign permissive agency of the 
great First Cause. It is His prerogative to bring light out of darkness and good 
out of evil. Surely the wrath of man shall praise Him, and the remainder of 
wrath He will restrain. In the light of a clearer day we may yet see that the 
wrath which planned and perpetrated the death of the President was overruled 
by Him whose judgments are unsearchable, and His ways past finding out, for 
the highest welfare of all those interests which are so dear to the Christian pa- 
triot and philanthropist, and for which a loyal people have made such an un- 
exampled sacrifice of treasure and of blood. Let us not be faithless, but 
believing. 

" Blind unbelief is prone to err, 
And scan His work in vain ; 
God is His own interpreter, 
And He will make it plain." 

We will wait for His interpretation, and we will wait in faith, nothing doubt- 
ing. He who has led us so well, and defended and prospered us so wonderfully, 
during the last four years of toil, and struggle, and sorrow, wili not forsake us 
now. He may chasten, but He will not destroy. He may purify us more and 
more in the furnace of trial, but He will not consume us. No, no ! He has 
chosen us, as He did His people of old, in the furnace of affliction, and He has 
said of us as He said of them, " This people have I formed for myself; they 
shall show forth my praise." Let our principal anxiety now be that this 



87 

new sorrow may be a sanctified sorrow ; that it may lead us to deeper repent- 
ance, to a more humbling sense of our dependence upon God, and to the more 
unreserved consecration of ourselves and all that we have to the cause of truth 
and justice, of law and order, of liberty and good government, of pure and 
undeCled religion. Then, though weeping may endure for a night, joy will 
come in the morning. Blessed be God ! despite of this great, and sudden, and 
temporary darkness, the morning has begun to dawn — the morning of a bright 
and glorious day, such as our country has never seen. That day will come 
and not tarry, and the death of a hundred Presidents and their Cabinets can 
never, never prevent it. While we are thus hopeful, however, let us also be 
humble. The occasion calls us to prayerful and tearful humiliation. It de- 
mands of us that we live low, very low, before Him who has smitten us for our 
sins. Oh, that all our Rulers and all our people may bow in the dust to-day 
beneath the chastening hand of God ! and may their voices go up to Him as 
one voice, and their hearts go up to Him as one heart, pleading with Him for 
mercy, for grace to sanctify our great and sore bereavement, and for wisdom to 
guide us in this our time of need. Such a united cry and pleading will not be 
in vain. It will enter into the ear and heart of Him who sits upon the throne, 
and He will say to us, as to His ancient Israel, " In a little wrath I hid my 
face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy 
upon thee, saith the Lord, thy Redeemer." 

I have said that the people confided in the late lamented President with a 
full and a loving confidence. Probably no man since the days of Washington 
was ever so deeply and firmly embedded and enshrined in the very hearts of 
the people as Abraham Lincoln. Nor was it a mistaken confidence and love. 
He deserved it — deserved it well — deserved it all. He merited it by his char- 
acter, by his acts, and by the whole tenor, and tone, and sjiirit of his life. He 
was simple and sincere, plain and honest, truthful and just, benevolent and 
kind. His perceptions were quick and clear, his judgment was calm and 
accurate, and his purposes were good and pure beyond a question. Always and 
everywhere he aimed and endeavored to he right and to do right. His integrity 
was thorough, all-pervading, all-controlling, and incorruptible. It was the 
same in every place and relation, in the consideration and the control of mat- 
ters great or small, the same firm and steady principle of power and beauty 
that shed a clear and crowning lustre upon all his other excellences of mind 
and heart, and recommended him to his fellow-citizens as the man, who, in a 
time of unexampled peril, when the very life of the nation was at stake, should 
be chosen to occupy, in the country and for the country, its highest post of 
power and responsibility. How wisely and well, how purely and faithfully, 
how firmly and steadily, how justly and successfully he did occupy that post 
and meet its grave demands m circumstances of surpassing trial and difliculty, 
is known to you ail, known to the country and the world. He comprehended 
from the first the perils to which treason had exposed the freest and best Gov- 
ernment on the earth, the vast interests of liberty and humanity that were to 
be saved or lost forever in the urgent impending conflict ; he rose to the dignity 
and momentousness of the occasion, saw his duty as the Chief Magistrate of a 
great and imperilled people, and he determined to do his duty, and his whole 



88 

duty, seeking the guidance and leaning upon the arm of Him of whom it is 
written, "He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might he 
increaseth strength." Yes; he leaned npon His arm. He recognized and re- 
ceived the truth that "the kingdom is the Lord's, and He is the governor 
among the nations." He remembered that " God is in history," and he felt 
that nowhere had His hand and His mercy been so marvellously conspisuous as 
in the history of this nation. He hoped and he prayed that that same hand 
would continue to guide us, and that same mercy continue to abound to us in 
the time of our greatest need. I speak what I know, and testify what I have 
often heard him say, when I affirm that that guidance and mercy were the 
prop on which he humbly and habitually leaned ; they were the best hope he 
had for himself and for his country. Hence, when he was leaving his home in 
Illinois, and coming to this city to take his seat in the executive chair of a dis- 
turbed and troubled nation, he said to the old and tried friends who gathered 
tearfully around him and bade him farewell, " I leave you with this request : 
'pray for me." They did pray for him; and millions of others prayed for 
him ; nor did they pray in vain. Their prayer was heard, and the answer 
appears in all his subsequent history ; it shines forth with a heavenly radiance 
in the whole course and tenor of his administration, from its commencement 
to its close. 

God raised hiin up for a great and glorious mission, furnished him for his work, 
and aided him in its accomplishment. Nor was it merely by strength of mind 
and honesty of heart, and purity and pertinacity of purpose, that He furnished 
him ; in addition to these things He gave him a calm and abiding confidence in 
the overruling providence of God, and in the ultimate triumph of truth and 
righteousness through the power and blessing of God. This confidence 
strengthened him in all his hours of anxiety and toil, and inspired him with 
calm and cheering hope when others were inclining to despondency and gloom. 
Never shall I forget the emphasis and the deep emotion with which he said, in 
this very room, to a company of clergymen and others, who called to pay him 
their respects in the darkest days of our civil conflict: "Gentlemen, my hope of 
success in this great and terrible struggle rests on that immutable foundation, 
the justice and goodness of God. And wlien events are very threatening, and 
prospects very dark, I still hope that in some way which man cannot see all 
will be well in the end, because our cause is just, and God is on our side." Such 
was his'sublime and holy faith, and it was an anchor to his soul, both sure and 
steadfast. It made him firm and strong. It emboldened him in the pathway 
of duty, however rugged and perilous it might be. It made him valiant for 
the right; for the cause of God and humanity; and it held him in steady, 
patient, and unswerving adherence to a policy of administration which he 
thought, and which all now think, both God and humanity required him to 
adopt. We admired and loved him on many accounts — for strong and various 
reasons ; we admired his childlike simplicity, his freedom from guile and deceit, 
his staunch and sterling integrity, his kind and forgiving temper, his industry 
and patience, his persistent, self-sacrificing devotion to all the duties of his 
eminent position, from the least to the greatest; his readiness to hear and con- 
sider the cause of the poor and humble, the suffering and the oppressed ; his 



89 

charity toward those who questioned the correctness of his opinions and the 
wisdom of his policy ; his wonderful skill in reconciling differences among the 
friends of the Union, leading them away from abstractions, and inducing them 
to work together and harmoniously for the common weal ; his true and enlarged 
philanthropy that knew no distinction of color and race, but regarded all men 
as brethren, and endowed alike by their Creator " with certain inalienable 
rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ;" his inflexi- 
ble purpose, that what freedom had gained in our terrible civil strife should 
never be lost, and that the end of the war should be the end of slavery, and, 
as a consequence, of rebellion ; his readiness to spend and be spent for the 
attainment of such a triumph — a triumph the blessed fruits of which shall be 
as wide-spreading as the earth, and as enduring as the sun. All these things 
commanded and fixed our admiration, and the admiration of the world, and 
stamped upon his character and life the unmistakable impress of greatness. 

But more sublime than any or all of these, more holy and influential, more 
beautiful and strong and sustaining, was his abiding confidence in God, and in 
the filial triumjjh of truth and righteousness through Him and for His sake. 
This was his noblest virtue, his grandest principle, the secret alike of his strength, 
his patience, and his success. And this, it seems to me, after being near him 
steadily, and with him often, for more than four years, is the principle by which 
more than by any other " he, being dead, yet speaketh." Yes; by his steady, 
enduring confidence in God, and in the complete ultimate success of the cause 
of God, which is the cause of humanity, more than in any other way, does he 
now speak to us and to the nation he loved and served so well. By this he 
speaks to his successor in oflSce, and charges him to have faith in God. By this 
he speaks to the members of his cabinet, the men with whom he counseled so 
often and was associated so long, and he charges them to have faith in God. 
By this he speaks to all who occupy positions of influence and authority in these 
sad and troublous times, and he charges them all to have faith in God. By 
this he speaks to this great people as they sit in sackcloth to-day, and weep for 
him with a bitter wailing, and refuse to be comforted, and he charges them to 
have faith in God. And by this he will speak through the ages and to all 
rulers and peoples in every land, and his message to them will be, " Cling to 
liberty and right ; battle for them, bleed for them, die for them if need be ; 
and have confidence in God." Oh that the voice of this testimony may sink 
down into our hearts to-day and every day, and into the heart of the nation, 
and exert its appropriate influence upon our feelings, our faith, our patience, 
and our devotion to the cause now dearer to us than ever before, because con- 
secrated by the blood of its most conspicuous defender, its wisest and most 
fondly-trusted friend. He is dead ; but the God in whom he trusted lives, and 
He can guide and strengthen his successor, as He guided and strengthened him. 
He is dead; but the memory of his virtues, of his wise and patriotic counsels 
and labors, of his calm and steady faith in God, lives, is precious, and will be 
a power for good in the country quite down to the end of time. He is dead ; 
but the cause he so ardently loved, so ably, patiently, faithfully represented 
and defended — not for himself only, not for us only, but for all people in all 
f'oming generations, till time sliall be no more — that cause survives his fall, 



90 

and will survive it. The light of its brightening prospects flashes cheeringly 
to-day athwart the gloom occasioned by his death, and the language of God's 
united providences is telling us that, though the friends of liberty die, liberty 
itself is immortal. There is no assassin strong enough, and no weapon deadly 
enough, to quench its inextinguishable life, or arrest its onward march to the 
conquest and empire of the world. This is our confidence, and this is our con- 
solation, as we weep and mourn to-day. Though our beloved President is 
slain, our beloved country is saved. And so we sing of mercy as well as of 
judgment. Tears of gratitude mingle with those of sorrow. While there is 
darkness there is also the dawning of a brighter, happier day upon our stricken 
and weary land. God be praised that our fallen chief lived long enough to 
see the day dawn and the day-star of joy and peace arise upon the nation. 
He saw it, and he was glad. Alas, alas ! he only saw the dawn. When the 
sun has risen, full-orbed and glorious, and a happy reunited people are rejoic- 
ing in its light, it will shine upon his grave. But that grave will be a precious 
and a consecrated spot. The friends of liberty and of the Union will repair 
to it in years and ages to come, to pronounce the memory of its occupant 
blessed, and, gathering from his very ashes, and from the rehearsal of his deeds 
and virtues, fresh incentives to patriotism, they will there renew their vows 
of fidelity to their country and their God. 

And now I know not that I can more appropriately conclude this discourse, 
which is but a sincere and simple utterance of the heart, than by addressing to 
our departed President, with some slight modification, the language which 
Tacitus, in his life of Agricola, addresses to his venerable and departed father- 
in-law : "With you we may now congratulate; you are blessed, not only 
because your life was a career of glory, but because you were released, when, 
your country safe, it was happiness to die. We have lost a parent, and, in our 
distress, it is now an addition to our heartfelt sorrow that we had it not in our 
power to commune with you on the bed of languishing, and receive your last 
embrace. Your dying words would have been ever dear to us; your commands 
we should have treasured up, and graved them on our hearts. This sad comfort 
we have lost, and the wound for that reason pierces deeper. From the world 
of spirits behold your disconsolate family and people; exalt our minds from 
fond regret and unavailing grief to the contemplation of your virtues. Those 
we must not lament ; it were impiety to sully them with a tear. To cherish 
their memorj^, to embalm them with our praises, and, so far as we can, to emu- 
late your bright example, will be the truest mark of our respect, the best 
tribute we can offer. Your wife will thus preserve the memory of the best of 
husbands, and thus your children will prove their filial piety. By dwelling 
constantly on your words and actions, they will have an illustrious character 
before their eyes, and not content with the bare image of your mortal frame, 
they will have what is more valuable — the form and features of your mind. 
Busts and statues, like their originals, are frail and perishable. The soul is 
formed of finer elements, and its inward form is not to be expressed by the 
hand of an artist with unconscious matter — our manners and our morals may 
in some degree trace the resemblance. All of you that gained our love and 
raised our admiration still suhsists, and will ever subsist, preserved in the minds 



91 

of men, the register of ages, and the records of fame. Others, who have 
figured on the stage of life and were the worthies of a former day, will sink, 
for want of a faithful historian, into the common lot of oblivion, inglorious 
and unremembered ; but you, our lamented friend and head, delineated with 
truth, and fairlj^ consigned to posterity, will survive yourself, and triumph over 
the injuries of time." 

When the speaker closed, Dr. Grey, the chaplain of the 
United States Senate, oflfered the followino^ 



CLOSING PRAYER I 

Lord God of Hosts, behold a nation prostrate before Thy throne, clothed 
in sackcloth, who stand around all that now remains of our illustrious and be- 
loved chief. We thank Thee that Thou hast given to us such a patriot, and to 
the country such a ruler, and to the world such a noble specimen of manhood. 
We bless Thee that Thou hast raised him to the highest position of trust and 
power in the nation ; and that Thou hast spared him so long to guide and di- 
rect the affairs of the Government in its hour of peril and conflict. We trusted 
it would be he who should deliver Israel ; that he would have been retained to 
us while the nation was passing through its baptism of blood ; but in an evil 
hour, in an unexpected moment, when joy and rejoicing filled our souls, and 
was thrilling the heart of the nation, he fell. God, give grace to sustain us 
under this dark and mysterious providence ! Help us to look up unto Thee and 
say. Not our will, but Thine, God, be done. We commend to Thy merciful 
regard and tender compassion the afflicted family of the deceased. Thou seest 
how their hearts are stricken with sorrow and wrung with agony. help 
them, as they are now passing through the dark valley and shadow of death, 
to fear no evil, but to lean upon Thy rod and staff for support. help them 
to cast their burden upon the Great Burden-bearer, and find relief. Help them 
to look beyond human agencies and human means, and recognize Thy hand, 
God, in this providence, and say, It is the Lord, let Him do what seemeth good 
in His sight ; and as they proceed slowly and sadly on their way with the re- 
mains of a husband and father, to consign them to their last resting place, may 
they look beyond the grave to the morning of Resurrection, when that which 
they now sow in weakness shall be raised in strength ; what they now sow a 
mortal body shall be raised a spiritual body ; that they now sow in corruption 
shall be raised in incorruption, and shall be fashioned like unto Christ's most 
glorious body. O God of the bereaved, comfort and sustain this mourning 
family. Bless the new Chief Magistrate. Let the mantle of his predecessor fall 
upon him. Bless the Secretary of State and his family. God, if possible ac- 
cording to Thy will, spare their lives, that they may render still important ser- 
vice to the country. Bless all the members of the Cabinet. Endow them with 
wisdom from above. Bless the commanders of our army and navy, and all the 
brave defenders of the country, and give them continued success. Bless the 



92 

ambassadors from foreign courts, and give ns peace with the nations of the 
earth. God, let treason, that has deluged our land with blood, and devastated 
our country, and bereaved our homes, and filled them with widows and or- 
phans, and has at length culminated in the assassination of the nation's chosen 
ruler — God of justice, and avenger of the nation's wrong, let the work of trea- 
son cease, and let the guilty author of this horrible crime be arrested and 
brought to justice. hear the cry, and the prayer, and the tears now rising 
from a nation's crushed and smitten heart, and deliver us from the power of all 
our enemies, and send speedy Deace unto all our borders, through Jesus Christ, 
our Lord. Amen. 



FUNERAL PROCESSION FROM THE PRESIDEN- 
TIAL MANSION TO THE CAPITOL. 



A scene so solemn, imposing, and impressive, as that which 
the national metropolis presented, and upon which myriad eyes 
of saddened faces were gazing, was never witnessed, under cir- 
cumstances so appalling, in any portion of our beloved coun- 
try. Around was the capital city, clad in the habiliments of 
mourning ; above, the cloudless sky, so bright, so tranquil, 
so cheerful, as if Heaven had, on that solemn occasion, 
specially invited us, by the striking contrast, to turn our 
thoughts from the darkness and the miseries of this life to the 
light and the joy that shine with endless lustre beyond it. The 
mournful strains of the funeral dirge, borne on the gentle 
zephyrs of that summer-like day, touched a responsive chord in 
every human heart of the countless thousands that, with solemn 
demeanor and measured step, followed to their temporary rest- 
ing place in the Nation's Capitol the cold, inanimate form of 
one who, living, was the honored Chief Magistrate of the 
American people, and, dead, will ever be endeared in their 
fondest memories. Never did a generous and grateful people 
pay, in anguish and tears, a tribute more sincere or merited to 
a kind, humane, and patriotic chieftain ; never were the dark 
and bloody deeds of crime brought out in relief so bold, and 
in horror and detestation so universal, as in the sublime and im- 
posing honors that day tendered to the corpse of Abraham Lin- 
coln. Such a scene was the epoch of a lifetime. Strong men 
were deeply affected ; gentle women wept ; children were awe- 



94 

stricken ; none will ever forget it. Memory had consecrated 
it on her brightest tablet ; and it will ever be thought, spoken, 
and written of as the sublime homage of a sorrowing nation at 
the shrine of the martyred Patriot. 

The hearse arrived shortly before the conclusion of the ser- 
vices in the White House. The hearse was a splendid piece of 
mechanism, and built expressly for the occasion. The lower 
base of the hearse was fourteen feet long and seven feet wide, 
and eight feet from the ground. The upper base, upon which 
the coffin rested, was eleven feet long, and was five feet below 
the top of the canopy. The canopy was surmounted by a gilt 
eagle, covered with crape. The whole hearse was covered 
with cloth, velvet, crape, and alpaca. The seat was covered 
with hammer-cloth, and on each side was a splendid black lamp. 
The hearse was fifteen feet high, and the coffin was so placed 
as to alford a full view to all spectators. It was drawn by six 
gray horses. 

A detailed detachment of the veteran reserve corps entered 
the room, and, the coffin having been closed, conveyed it from 
the catafalque to the funeral car awaiting it at the main en- 
trance to the mansion. As soon as it was placed upon the car, 
the gentlemen in the East Room passed out in their appointed 
order, fell into their assigned places, and the funeral cortege 
passed on in the broad sunlight to Pennsylvania avenue. 

At three o'clock the crowd was as densely packed as pos- 
sible throughout the entire length of the procession, from the 
Presidential Mansion to the Capitol, a distance of a mile. 
Every roof, window, doorway, balcony, and step, as well as the 
pavements and the portion of the street between the curbs, 
upon which the eager spectators could not be prevented from 
somewhat infringing, was overwhelmingly crowded. The 
spectacle was grand beyond description, and the demonstrations 
of the people, as the funeral cortege passed, were most touch- 
ing. The colored people formed a large portion of the crowd, 
and their tearful eyes and sorrowful countenances, as the hearse 
which contained the remains of their friend and liberator 
passed, only expressed the mourning of the nation over the 
death of its best defender. 



The number in the procession could not have been less than 
forty thousand, and sixty thousand more "were spectators of the 
solemn pageant. 

OEDER OF THE PROCESSION. 

Funeral escort in column of march. 
The following was in the main the order of procession: 

Tenth Regiment A^eteran Reserve Corps, ]\Iajor George Bowers commanding, 
followed by the drum corps of the regiment. 

The 9th Regiment Veteran Reserve Corps, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel 
R. E. Johnson, followed by the band of the regiment playing a dirge. 

Colonel George W. Gile was in command of the brigade, whose flags were 
draped in mourning. The men marched with reversed arms and muffled drums. 

Battalion of Marines, commanded by Major Graham ; the companies in charge 
of Lieutenants A. B. Young, J. M. T. Young, Miller, Reed, and Bigelow. 

The Marine Band, composed of thirty-five pieces, and a drum corps, consist- 
ing of twenty-two pieces, under the conductorship of Professor Scala, their 
leader. This band played the funeral march, composed by Brevet Major Gen- 
eral J. G. Barnard, which was dedicated to the occasion. 

A detachment of artillery from Camp Barry, consisting of eight brass pieces 
draped in mourning. Sections A and F, 1st United States Artillery, were com- 
manded by Captain Norris; first section, battery A, 4th Artillery, was com- 
manded by Lieutenant King ; and first sections of batteries C and E were com- 
manded by Lieutenant Smith, the whole being under the command of Brigadier 
General Hall. 

Sixteenth New York Cavalry; two battalions of the 16th Illinois Cavalry; 
and one battalion of the 18th Illinois Cavalry, under the command of Colonel 
M. B. Sweitzer. 

Band of the 16th New York Cavalry. 

Commander of escort. Major General Augur, and Staff 

General Hardee and Staff. 

General Gamble and Staff. 

Dismounted officers of the Marine Corps, Navy, and Army, nearly three hun- 
dred in number. 

Mounted officers of Marine Corps, Navy, and Army, in very large numbers. 

Amongst the officers of the Navy in the line of procession were Rear Admirals 
Goldsborough, Porter, Davis, and Smith; Commodores Montgomery and Har- 
wood; and Captains Clissen, Cooper, Brissell, Taylor, Wyman, and Stone. 

Among the military officers were Brigadier General James B. Fry, Provost 
Marshal General of |he United States, and many others. 

Several hundred paroled officers of the army, who came specially from An- 
napolis to take part in the ceremonies. They were the only officers without side 
arms, which they could not use until exchanged. 



96 

Medical staff of the army, consisting of officers connected witli the Medical 
Department and surgeons on daty in hospitals, &c., in and about Washington. 

Paymasters of the United States Army, under the command of Brevet Briga- 
dier General B. W. Brice, Paymaster General. 

Civic Procession. 

Marshal Ward H. Lamon, supported by his aids. 

The clergy in attendance : The Eev. P. D. Gurley, D. D. ; Rev. Charles H. 
Hall, D. D.; Rev. Bishop Simpson, D. D. ; and Rev. E. H. Gray, D. D. 

Surgeon General Barnes, of the United States army, and Dr. Stone, physi- 
cians of the deceased. 

Pall Bearers. 

On the part of the Senate: Mr. Foster, of Connecticut; Mr. Morgan, of New 
York ; Mr. Johnson, of Maryland ; Mr. Yates, of Illinois ; Mr. Wade, of Ohio ; 
Mr. Conness, of California. On the part of the House : Mr. Dawes, of Massa- 
chusetts ; Mr. Coffroth, of Pennsylvania; Mr. Smith, of Kentucky; Mr. Col- 
fax, of Indiana ; Mr. Worthington, of Nevada ; Mr. Washburne, of Illinois. 
On the part of the Army : Lieutenant General U. S. Grant; Major General H. 
W. Halleck ; Brevet Brigadier General Nichols. On the part of the Navy : 
Vice Admiral Farragut ; Rear Admiral Shubrick ; Colonel Jacob Zeilen, Ma- 
rine Corps. Civilians : 0. H. Browning ; George Ashmun ; Thomas Corwin ; 
Simon Cameron. 

The HEARSE, drawn by six gray horses, each of which was led by a groom. 

The horse of deceased, led by two grooms, caparisoned. 

The family of the deceased, relatives, private secretaries, and friends. 

Delegations of the States of Illinois and Kentucky, as mourners. 

The President of the United States, accompanied by Hon. Preston King. 

Members of the Cabinet. 

The Diplomatic Corps, in full Court dress. 

Ex-Vice President Hamlin. 

Chief Justice S. P. Chase, and the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of 
the United States. 

The Senate of the United States, with their officers — John W. Forney, Esq., 
Secretary ; William Hickey, Esq., Chief Clerk ; George T. Brown, Esq., Ser- 
geant-at-Arms ; and Isaac Bassett, Esq., Assistant Sergeant-at-Arms. 

Members of the late and the next House of Representatives, with the officers 
of the last House— Hon. Edward McPherson, Clerk ; Hon. N. G. Ordway, Ser- 
geant-at-Arms ; and Ira Goodenow, Doorkeeper. 

Governors of the several States and Territories, a very full attendance. 

Members of the several State and Territorial Legislatures. 

Chief Justice Casey, and Associate Judges of the Court of Claims. 

The Federal Judiciary, and the Judiciary of the several States and Territories. 

Assistant Secretaries of the several Departments. 

Professor Henry, and the other officers of the Smithsonian Institution. 

Members and officers of the Sanitary and Christian Commissions. 



97 

The Judges of the several Courts, and Members of the Bar of the city of 
Washington. 

Band. 

Washington Commandery of Knights Templar, S. P. Bell, Marshal, preceded 
by the Band of the Campbell Hospital, carrying the banners of their Order. 

The Councils and other members of the Corporation of the City of Baltimore. 

Members of the Corporation of Alexandria. 

Members of the Councils of the City of New York. 

The Select and Common Councils of the city of Philadelphia. Also, delega- 
tions from the civic authorities of Boston, and Brooklyn, New York. 

Committee of the Union League, of Philadelphia, headed by Horace Binney, 
Jr., Esq., and Morton McMichael, Esq. 

Members of the Christian Commission of the city of Philadelphia. 

Band. 

The Perseverance Hose Company, of the city of Philadelphia, of which 
President Lincoln was an honorary member, in black suits, with badges on 
their hats designating their organization. They were headed by their Presi- 
dent, John G. Butler, Esq., chief coiner of the United States Mint, and Chief 
Dickson, of the Washington Fire Department. The company numbered eighty 
men. 

The Corporate Authorities of Washington and Georgetown, headed by Mayors 
of five cities — Washington, Georgetown, Alexandria, Baltimore, and Boston. 

Ministers of the various religious denominations, white and colored. 

Delegations from the various States in the following order: 

Massachusetts, about seventy-five in number, besides the band, which they 
brought from Boston. The State flag which they bore was draped in mourn- 
ing. Maj. Gen. B. F. Butler, in citizen's dress, occupied a position in this por- 
tion of the line ; Marshal, Gardiner Tufts. New Hampshire, numbering about 
twenty men ; Marshal, Matthew G. Emery. 

Ohio had 80 men in line, under the marshalship of H. M. Slade, Esq. 

New York numbered 300. 

New Jersey was represented by one hundred of her sons, and led by Mr. 
Prevost, acting marshal. 

California, Oregon, and Nevada united, and had one hundred representatives 
of the far West, under the marshalship of Mr. Wray. 

Maine was led by Mr. S. P. Brown, and turned out a very large and respecta- 
ble crowd. 

Band. 

The heads and chiefs of Bureaus of the Treasury Department, under the 
marshalship of Mr. A. E. Edwards, assisted by Capt. Jones and Col. Willett, 
preceded by the Band of the Treasury Eegiment. They carried with them the 
flag torn by Booth, as he leaped to the stage of Ford's Theatre on the night of 
the assassination. 

The Journeymen Bookbinders and Printers of the Government establishment, 
marshalled by Mr. George W. Francis. 

The War Department employees turned out in large force, and were mar- 
shalled by Mr. Potts. 
1 



9b 

The Pension OfEce had one hundred employees in line, marshalled by Com- 
missioner Barrett, and Mr. Pearson, chief clerk. 

The clerks and employees of the Post Office Department were marshalled by 
Dr. McDonald and Maj. Scott. 

The clerks of the Ordnance Office. 

The clerks of the Agricultural Bureau. 

Quartermaster's Band. 

Major General M. C. Meigs, and the following heads of divisions of the 
Quartermaster's Department: 

Col. G. v. Rutherford, Col. B. C. Card, Col. S. L. Brown, Col. A. J. Perry, 
Col. John D. Wise, Col. J. D. Bingham, and Col. L. B. Parsons. 

A brigade, composed of the employees of the Quartermaster's Department. 

Office battalion Quartermaster's regiment. Major Wagner commanding. 

First regiment Quartermaster's Volunteers, Col. C. H. Tompkins command- 
ing. 

Second Regiment, Col. J. M. Moore commanding. 

Brig. Gen. Rucker commanded the brigade, and Brig. Gen. J. A. Ekin and 
Col. J. J. Dana were the marshals. 

Clerks in the Quartermaster's Department, in citizens' dress. 

Eight survivors of the war of 1812, viz: Chapman Lee, Fielder R. Dorsett, 
Smith Minor, Thomas Foster, R. M. Harrison, Isaac Burch, Joseph P. Wolf, and 
Captain John Moore. 

The clerks and employees of the Baltimore Custom House and Post Office, 
marshalled by Dr. E. C. Gaskill, one hundred and eighty in number, accompanied 
by the fine band of the 8th Regiment, United States Infantry, which is stationed 
in Baltimore. 

Society of the Brotherhood of the Union, Capitol Circle, No. 1, located at the 
Navy-Yard; Thomas H. Robinson, Marshal. 

Band. 

The Fenian Brotherhood, Marshal P. H. Donegan, State Centre, D. C. They 
numbered some three hundred men, about one hundred and fifty being from 
Georgetown ; their flag was draped in mourning. 

A detachment of the guard stationed at Seminary Hospital, Georgetown, 
marshalled by Sergeant Conway. 

Band. 

About a thousand employees of the United States Military Railroad, under 
the command of General McCullum, many of them from Alexandria. 

The National Republican Association of the Seventh Ward, marshalled by 
Captain McConnell and F. A. Boswell. 

A delegation of citizens of Alexandria, headed by the band attached to Gen- 
eral Slough's headquarters. 

A wagon, containing a large banner, on both sides of which was inscribed 
'• Alexandria mourns the national loss." 

Firemen of Alexandria : Friendship and Sun Fire Companies. 

Civic societies of Alexandria : Andrew Jackson Lodge A. Y. M. A delegation 
from the Christian Commission of Alexandria. 

Two German Glee Clubs. 



99 

The Mount Vernon Abbui-.^tion. 

The Potomac Hose Company, of Georgetown ; Samuel R. Swain, Marshal. 

About four hundred convalescents from the Lincoln Hospital, preceded by 
their band. 

Workingmen and mechanics of the Mount Clair Works, Baltimore, to the 
number of seven hundred, were marshalled by William H. Shepley. 

Convalescents from Finley Hospital to the number of nearly three hundred, 
under charge of Steward Hill. 

The harness-makers, saddlers, and other operatives employed at the Arsenal, 
under the marshalship of William H. Godren. 

The pupils of Gonzaga College, to the number of two hundred and fifty, were 
under the charge of Father Wiget, with whom were a number of Catholic 
clergymen and teachers. 

Band. 

Union Leagues of East Baltimore, Washington, Georgetown, and New York, 
marshalled by James D. McKean. 

German Societies and citizens : Relief Association of Washington, mounted ; 
Relief Association, on foot ; Turners of Washington ; Washington Sangerbund ; 
Germania Lodge, No. 1, Order of Odd Fellows ; Franklin Lodge of Independ- 
ent Brothers, No. 1 ; and the Swiss Association ; Marshal — Colonel Joseph Ger- 
hardt, assisted by Messrs. Charles Walter, F. Stosch, M. Rosenburg, F. Martin, 
Andrew Lutz, and Franz Buehler. The delegation was headed by Lebnartz's 
Baltimore band. 

The Sons of Temperance were well represented. The Grand Division was 
preceded by the band of Carver Hospital, and was marshalled by G. W. P., 
F. M. Bradley ; Divisions No. 1 and 10, Good Samaritan and Meridian, mar- 
shalled bj' P. W. Summy ; Excelsior Division, No. 6, Federal City Division, No. 
2, and Equal Division, No. 3, marshalled by S. C. Spurgeon and S. S. Bond, and 
preceded by a band; Aurora Division, No. 9, (Finley Hospital,) marshalled by 
H. D. Maynard ; Lincoln Division, marshalled by M. F. Kelley ; Mount Pleas- 
ant Division, Sergeant 0. G. Lane, Marshal. Cliffbiirne Division ; J. M. Roney, 
Marshal; Mount Vernon and McKee Divisions, Alexandria; T. D. Dolan, Mar- 
shal ; Everett Division, No. 25, (Camp Barry;) W. H. Perkins, Marshal. 

The Columbia Typographical Society mustered one hundred and forty men, 
and was marshalled by ]\Ir. L. F. Clements. 

The Hebrew Congregation, one hundred and twenty-five men, marshalled by 
B. Kaufmac. 

A delegation of two or three hundred Italians, under the marshalship of ex- 
Lieutenant Maggi, formerly of the 39th New York regiment. They carried the 
national flag of Italy and the flag of the United States. 

Convalescents from Emory Hospital, under the charge of Hospital Steward 
W. C. Branhill. 

Colored people to the number of several thousand, among whom were the 
following: 

The Annual Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, headed 
by the Right Reverend Bishops Payne and Wayman. 

Clergy of the various denominations. 



100 

G. U. 0. 0. Nazarites, ]\Iarshal Noah Butler. 

Delegation of the First Colored Christian Commission, of Baltimore. 

D. A. Payne Lodge of Good Samaritans. 

The G. U. 0. 0. Fellows, preceded by the Grand Council. 

Blue Lodge of Ancient York Masons. 

Masonic Grand Lodge of the United States and Canada. 

Colored citizens of Baltimore ; George A. Hacket, Chief Marshal. 

Washington United Benevolent Association, who carried with them a banner 
bearing the inscription, "We mourn our loss." 

Band. 
-Colored men of Washington Sons of Levi. 

Eastern Star Lodge, No. 1,028, I. 0. 0. F. 

JohnF. Cook Lodge, No. 1,185. 

Union Friendship Lodge, No. 891. 

Potomac Union Lodge, of Georgetown, No. 892. 

Olive Lodge, No. 967, A. Y. M. 

The Catholic Benevolent Association, carrying a banner bearing the motto, 
" In God we trust." 

Harmony Lodge of Odd-Fellows. 

Union Grand Lodge of Maryland. 

A colored regiment from the front arrived at precisely two 
o'clock, and not being able to proceed any further than the 
corner of Seventh street, halted in front of the Metropolitan 
Hotel, wheeled about, and became by that manoeuvre the very 
head and front of the procession. They appeared to be under 
the very best discipline, and displayed admirable skill in their 
various exercises. 

When the procession reached the corner of Fifteenth street 
and Pennsylvania avenue, one of the horses attaclied to the 
President's carriage became unmanageable, and the President, 
with the Hon. Preston King, alighted and took seats in another 
carriage. 

The procession surpassed in sentiment, populousness, and 
sincere good feeling, anything of the kind we have had in 
America. It was several miles long, and in all its elements 
was full and tasteful. The scene on the avenue will always be 
remembered as the only occasion on which that great thorough- 
fare was a real adornment to the seat of Government. In the 
tree-tops, on the house-tops, at all the windows, the silent and 
affected crowds clustered beneath half-masted banners and 
waving crape, to reverentially uncover as the dark vehicle, 



101 

bearing its rich silver-mounted coffin, swept along ; mottoes of 
respect and homage were on many edifices. The entire width 
of the avenue was swept from curb to curb by the deep lines. 

The grand and beautiful funeral march, performed for the 
first time by the United States Marine Band, in the obsequies 
of our deceased and beloved Chief Magistrate, was composed 
and dedicated to the occasion by Brevet Major General J. G. 
Barnard. 

Some four hundred and fifty paroled officers, of every grade 
and arm of the service, arrived from Camp Parole, Annapolis. 
They were under the command of Brigadier General Chamber- 
lin, and having met in front of the Executive Mansion at noon, 
joined in the funeral procession. 

A joint committee of the Aldermen and Common Council of 
New York arrived in Washington, and stopped at the Seaton 
House. They were received by a committee of the Common 
Council of the District, and formed in procession with the 
Common Council of Washington. Alderman Brice was cliair- 
man of the committee, and Owen Cavenaugh, secretary. The 
badge worn by the committee was handsomely draped, the 
device being the coat of arms of the city, having engraved 
thereon the respective names of the members of the body. 
The badge was about two inclies in circumference, and remark- 
ably neat and appropriate in its appearance. The members of 
this company constituted a fine-looking body of men. 

The Philadelpliia City Councils, the Committee of the Union 
League Club of New York city, and the committee of mer- 
chants and citizens of New York, appeared in the funeral pro- 
cession. 

When the procession started, minute guns were fired from 
batteries stationed near St. John's Church, City Hall, and on 
East Capitol street. The bells of all the churches and of the 
fire engine houses also continually tolled. 

The siglit from the Capitol probably presented tlie most im- 
posing view of the procession that could be attained at any 
point. Those who wore privileged to entrance in the Capitol 
wore universal in their dcch\rations that it was thegrandest and 
most imposing demonstration they had over seen. It appeared 
10 us like a grand panorama, in which the fio-ures were stat- 



102 

uesquc, and fri'adnally presented to t])e view. Tlie crowd was 
too immense to bring' within tlie scope and comprehension of 
ordinary vision, even with the aid of a glass. 

As it approached the Capitol, every arrangement practicable 
to secure order and resist the pressure of the crowd was made. 
The vacant space on the east front of the Capitol was com- 
pletely cleared. A cordon of infantry, and a line of cavalry, 
including many officers of high rank, as well as the many pa- 
roled officers mentioned elsewhere, formed an effectual barrier 
to the crowd, and with the aid of the police, well ordere<i by 
Superintendent Richards, kept the space which had been cleared 
wholly unobstructed. 

There was also placed in front of the old portico and steps 
of the Capitol, in the centre, a stand, upon which the coffin 
might be placed when removed from the funeral car, the latter 
being too high to be reached from the ground. The steps and 
the entrance were also cleared of all persons save the members 
of the Capitol, under the excellent direction of Captain New- 
man, who lined each side of the steps, and who, having had 
charge of the entire building, had excluded therefrom all per- 
sons but a few representatives of the press, who had duly 
authorized passes. 

On entering the Rotunda, the grand paintings and statues, 
which represent the discovery of America and of the Missis- 
sippi, the settlement of the country, the foundation of the Gov- 
ernment, the struggles of the colonists with the Indians, the 
Revolutionary War, &c., of the most important historic interest, 
draped with mourning, struck the eye. 

Among those draped were : The Discovery of the Missis- 
sippi by De Soto, 1541 ; The Baptism of Pocahontas, Jamestown, 
Ya., 1613; The Landing of Columbus, October, 1492: Em- 
barkation of the Pilgrims from Delf haven, in Holland, July 21, 
1620; The Declaration of Independence, July 4,1776; The 
Surrender of General Burgoyne, Saratoga, N. Y., October, 
1777 ; The Surrender of Cornwallis, Yorktown, Ya., October, 
1781 ; and General Washington Resigning his Commission to 
Congress, at Annapolis, Maryland, December 23, 1783. 

The Rotunda was otherwise neatly draped. The most notice- 
able feature of the tasteful and appropriate arrangements for 



103 

the decorations was tlic absence of all drapery upon the statue 
of Washington, save a black sash, draping the bust after the 
style of military mourning. 

At half-past three o'clock Hon. B. B. French, Su})crinteud- 
ent of the Public Buildings, accompanied by James 0. Clephane, 
one of the civic marshals, entered the rotunda, followed by the 
clergy, and the pliysicians who were in attendance upon the 
late President's last hours. They took their several positions 
at the head of the catafalque, and twelve sergeants of the Vet- 
eran Reserve Corps, each from a different company, then en- 
tered, bearing the coffin, which they deposited upon the cata- 
falque. Lieutenant General Grant, Major General Halleck, 
Assistant Adjutant General Nichols, Admirals Farragut, Golds- 
borough, and Stringham entered next, and after tliem the new 
President and the Cabinet, followed in turn by the remaining 
pall-bearers. 

The pall-bearers arranged themselves in a circle around the 
catafalque. Generals Grant and Halleck, and the Admirals, 
the President, and the Cabinet, took positions at the foot of 
the coffin, some ten feet from it — the two Secretaries standing 
on the left side, in front of the pall-bearers. A few prominent 
gentlemen, among whom were the Hon. Simon Cameron, Gen- 
erals H:uiter and Meigs, also entered the rotunda and approached 
the coffin, after which the services were proceeded with by Dr. 
Gurley, as follows : 

BURIAL SERVICE. 

It is appointed unto men once to die. Tlie dust returns to the earth as it 
was, and the spirit to God who gave it. All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of 
man as the flower of grass ; the grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth 
away. We know that we must die and go the house appointed for all living. 
For what is our life ? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time and 
then vanisheth away. Therefore be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye 
think not the Son of Man cometh. Let us pray. 

Lord, so teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto 
wisdom. Wean us from this transitory world. Turn away our eyes from be- 
holding vanity. Lift up our affections to the things which are above, where 
Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. There may our treasure be, and there 
maj"- our hearts be also. Wash us in the blood of Christ ; clothe us in the 
righteousness of Christ ; renew and sanctify us by his word and spirit ; lead 
us in the paths of piety for his name's sake. Gently, Lord, oh, gently lead us 



104 

through all the duties, and changes, and trials of our earthly pilgrimage. Dis- 
pose us to pass the time of our sojourning here in fear, denying ungodliness 
and worldly lusts, and living soberly, righteously, and godly in this present 
world; and when we come to die, may we be gathered to our fathers having 
the testimony of a good conscience ; in the communion of the Christian church; 
in the confidence of a certain faith ; in the comfort of a reasonable, religious, 
and holy hope ; in favor with Thee, our God ; and in perfect charity with the 
world ; all which we ask through Jesus Christ, our blessed Lord and Redeemer. 
Amen. 

Forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God, in his wise providence, to take 
out of this clay tabernacle the soul that inhabited it, we commit its decaying 
remains to their kindred element, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust ; 
looking for the general resurrection through our Lord Jesus Christ, at whose 
coming to judge the world earth and sea shall give up their dead, and the cor- 
ruptible bodies of them that sleep in Him shall be fashioned like unto his 
glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all 
things unto himself. Wherefore, let us comfort one another with these words. 

And now may the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord 
Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting 
covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you 
that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, the Resurrection 
and the Life, our Redeemer and our Hope, to whose care we now commit these 
precious remains, and to whose name be glory forever and ever. Amen. 

The late President's body-guard and a company of the Vet- 
eran Reserve Corps then formed a cordon around the coffin. 
The building was cleared, by order of Secretary Stanton, and 
the body-guard of the President and a guard of honor com- 
posed of several officers remained in charge, with the Capitol 
police, under charge of Captain Newman, to remain there all 
night. 

The guard of honor, whicli had been on duty all day, was 
relieved by Brigadier General James A. Ekin, and Major D. C. 
Welsh and Captain Joseph T. Powers, of his staff; and Briga- 
dier General James A. Hall, and Captain E. H. Nevin, Jr., 
and Lieutenant Terrence Riley, of his staff. Up to the hour of 
9, crowds continued to come in, and at that time the doors 
were closed. 

The above guard of honor stayed with the remains during 
the night, and at 6 o'clock in the morning Hon. E. M. Stanton, 
Secretary of War ; Hon. J. P. Usher, Secretary of the In- 
terior ; Hon. Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy ; Hon. 
William Dennison, Postmaster General ; Hon. J. J. Speed, At- 



105 

torney General ; Licuteuaut General Grant, and a portion of 
his staff; Major General Meigs, Rev. Dr. Giirlcy, and several 
Senators, the Illinois delegation, and a number of officers of 
the army, arrived at the Capitol, and took a last look at the 
face of the deceased. The coffin was then prepared for re- 
moval, and twelve orderly sergeants were called in to carry it 
to the liearse. Rev. Dr. Gurlcy, before the removal of the re- 
mains, made the following prayer:; 

Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the 
mountains were brought forth, or ever Thou hadst formed the earth and the 
world, even from everlasting to everlasting Thou art God. Thou turnest man 
to destruction, and sayest, return, ye children of men. We acknowledge Thy 
hand in the great and sudden affliction that has befallen us as a nation, and we 
pray that in all these hours and scenes of sorrow through which we are passing 
we may have the guidance of Thy counsel and the consolations of Thy Spirit. 
We commit to Thy care and keeping this sleeping dust of our fallen Chief 
Magistrate, and pray Thee to watch over it as it passes from our view and is 
borne to its final resting place in the soil of that State which was his abiding 
and chosen home. And grant, we beseech Thee, that, as the people in different 
cities and sections of the land shall gather around this coffin and look upon the 
fading remains of the man they loved so well, their love for the cause in which 
he fell may kindle into a brighter, intenser flame, and, while their tears are 
falling, may they renew their vows of eternal fidelity to the cause of justice, 
liberty, and truth. So may this great bereavement redound to Thy glory and 
to the highest welfare of our stricken and bleeding country : and all we ask is 
in the name and for the sake of Jesus Christ, our blessed Lord and Eedeemer. 
Amen. 

The remains were then removed by a detachment of the 
Quartermaster General's Volunteers, detailed by Brigadier 
General Rucker ; and escorted to the depot by the companies 
of Captains Cromee, Bush, Hildebrand, and Dillon, of the I2th 
Veteran Reserve Corps, tlie whole under the command of Lieu- 
tenant Colonel Bell. The remains were followed by Lieutenant 
General Grant, General Meigs, General Hardee, the members 
of the Cabinet — Messrs. Stanton, Welles, McCulloch, Denui- 
son, and Uslier — and Assistant Secretary Fields, and other dis- 
tinguished personages. 

At the depot was President Johnson, lion. W. T. Dole, Gen- 
eral Barnard, General Rucker, General Townsend, General 
Howe, and others. 

The remains of the late President and of liis son were placed 
in the car appointed to receive them. None were admitted in 



106 

the cars except those who had tickets authorizing them to go 
with the remains, Senators and Members of Congress, military- 
officers, and passengers. 

A few minutes before eight o'clock, Capt. Robert Lincoln, 
son of the President, accompanied by two relatives, arrived 
and took his seat in the cars. 

Messrs. Nicolay and Hay, the late President's private secre- 
taries, arrived a few moments later and also took their places. 

Twenty-one first sergeants, of the 7th, 10th, 9th, 12th, 14th, 
18th, and 24th Veteran Reserve Corps, accompanied the re- 
mains as a guard. 

The train started at precisely 8 o'clock, and a few moments 
before that time Rev. Dr. Gurley, standing upon the platform, 
made the following prayer : 

Lord our God, strengthen us under the pressure of this great national sor- 
sow as Thou only canst strengthen the weak, and comfort us as Thou only 
canst comfort the sorrowing, and sanctify us as Thou only canst sanctify a 
people when they are passing through the fiery furnace of trial. May Thy 
grace abound to us according to our need, and in the end may the affliction that 
now fills our hearts with sadness and our eyes with tears work for us a far 
more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. 

And now may the God of Peace that brought again from the dead our Lord 
Jesus, that Great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting 
covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in 
j'ou that which is well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, the Resur- 
rection and the Life, our Redeemer and our Hope, our fathers' God and our God, 
in whose care we now leave these precious remains, to whose blessing we re- 
newedly commit our bereaved and beloved country, and to whose name be 
glory forever and ever. Amen. 

As the train moved slowly from the depot the bells of the 
engines tolled, and all persons standing by, in token of respect 
and reverence, uncovered their heads, and stood thus until the 
train had passed out of tlic depot. 

SPECIAL ORDER REGULATING THE TRANSPORTATION OF THE RE- 
MAINS OP THE LATE PRESIDENT, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, FROM 
WASHINGTON CITY TO SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS. 

War Department, 
Washington City, Ajml 18, 1S65. 
Ordered : ^ 

First. That the following report, and the arrangements therein specified, be 
approved and confirmed, and that the transportation of the remains of tlic late 
rresidf^nt, Abraliam Lincoln, from Wasliington to las former liome, at Spring- 



107 

field, the capital of Illinois, be conducted in accordance with the said report 
and the arrangements therein specified. 

Second. That for the purpose of said transportation, the railroads over which 
said transportation is made be declared military roads, subject to the orders of 
the War Department, and thai the railroad and locomotives, cars, and engines 
engaged in said transportation be subject to the military control of Brigadier 
General McCullum, superintendent of military railroad transportation; and 
all persons are required to conform to the rules, regulations, orders, and direc- 
tions he may give or prescribe for the transportation aforesaid ; and all persons 
disobeying said orders shall be deemed to have violated the military orders of 
the War Department, and shall be dealt with accordingly. 

Third. That no person shall be allowed to be transported upon the cars con- 
stituting the funeral train, save those who are specially authorized by the order 
of the War Department. The funeral train will not exceed nine cars, including 
baggage car, and the hearse car, which will proceed over the whole route 
from Washington to Springfield, Illinois. 

Fourth. At the various points on the route, where the remains are to be taken 
from the hearse car by State or municipal authorities, to receive public honors, 
according to the aforesaid programme, the said authorities will make such ar- 
rangements as may be fitting and appropriate to the occasion, under the direc- 
tion of the military commander of the division, department, or district, but tha 
remains will continue always under the special charge of the oflicers and es- 
cort assigned by this Department. 

By order of the Secretary of War : 

E. D. TOWNSEND, 
Assistant Adjutant Oeneral. 

War Department, 
Washington City, April 18, 1865. 
His Excellency Governor Brough and John W. Garrett, Esq., are requested 
to act as a committee of arrangement of transportation of the remains of the 
late President, Abraham Lincoln, from Washington to their final resting place. 
They are authorized to arrange the time-tables with the respective railroad 
companies, and do and regulate all things for safe and appropriate transporta- 
tion. They will cause notice of this appointment, and their acceptance, to be 
published for public information. 

EDWIN M. STANTON, 

Secretary of War. 

Washington City, D. C, Ajnil 18, 1865. 
Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War: 

Sir : Under your commission of this date we have the honor to report : 
1. A committee of the citizens of the State of Illinois, appointed for the pur- 
pose of attending to the removal of the remains of the late President to their 
State, has furnished us with the following route for the remains and escort, 
being, with the exception of two points, the route traversed by Mr. Lincoln 
from Springfield to Washington: Washington to Baltimore, thence to Harris- 



108 

burg, Philadelphia, New York, Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland, Columbus, Indian- 
apolis, ^Chicago, to Springfield. 

2. Over this route, under the counsels of the committee, we have prepared 
the following time card, in all cases for special trains : 

TIME CAKD. 

Leave "Washington, 8 A. M., Friday, 21st inst. Arrive at Baltimore, 10 A. 
M., same day. 

Leave Baltimore, 3 P. M., Friday, 21st. Arrive at Harrisburg, 8.20 P. M., 
same day. 

Leave Harrisburg, 12 M., Saturday, 22d. Arrive at Philadelphia, 6.30 P. 
M., same day. 

Leave Philadelphia, 4 A. M., Monday, 24th. Arrive at New York, 10 A. 
M., same day. 

Leave New York, 4 P. M., Tuesday, 23th. Arrive at Albany, 11 P. M., same 
day. 

Leave Albany, 4 P. M., Wednesday, 26th. Arrive at Buffalo, 7 A. M., 
Thursday, 27th. 

Leave Buffalo, 10.10 P. M., Thursday 27th. Arrive at Cleveland, 7 A. M., 
Friday, 28th. 

Leave Cleveland, 12 midnight, Friday, 2Sth. Arrive at Columbus, 7.30 A. 
M., Saturday, 29th. 

Leave Columbus, 8 P. M., Saturday, 29th. Arrive at Indianapolis, 7 A. M., 
Sunday, 30th. 

Leave Indianapolis, 12 midnight, Sunday, 30th. Arrive at Chicago, 11 A. 
M., Monday, May 1. 

Leave Chicago, 9.30 P. M., Tuesday, May 2. Arrive at Springfield, 8 A. M., 
Wednesday, May 3. 

The route from Columbus to Indianapolis is via the Columbus and Indian- 
apolis Central railway, and from Indianapolis to Chicago, via Lafayette and 
Michigan City. 

3. As to the running of these special trains, which, in order to guard as far 
as practicable against accidents and detentions, we have reduced to about 
twenty miles per hour, we suggest the following regulations : 

1. That time of departure and arrival be observed as closely as possible. 

2. That material detentions at way points be guarded against as much as 
practicable, so as not to increase the speed of trains. 

3. That a pilot engine be kept ten minutes in advance of the train. 

4. That the special train, in all cases, have the right of road ; and that all 
other trains be kept out of its way. 

5. That the several railroad companies provide a sufficient number of couches 
for the comfortable accommodation of the escort, and a special car for the re- 
mains ; and that all these, together with the engines, be appropriately draped 
in mourning. 

6. That where the running time of any train extends beyond, or commences 
at midnight, not less than two sleeping cars be added, and a greater number if 
the road can command them, suificient for the accommodation of the escort. 

7. That two officers of the United States Military Railway service be detailed 
by you, and despatched at once over the route, to confer with the several rail- 



109 

way officers, and make all necessary preparations for carrying out these 
arrangements promptly and satisfactorily. 

8. That this programme and these regulations, if approved, be confirmed 
by an order of the War Department. 
Respectfully submitted. 

JOHN BEOUGH, 
JOHN W. GARRETT, 

Committee. 

THE GUARD OF HONOR. 

The following is a list of the gentlemen and those constitut- 
ing the guard of honor which accompanied the remains of the 
lamented President : 

Judge David Davis, Judge of the United States Supreme Court; N. W. Ed- 
wards, General J. B. S. Todd, Charles Alexander Smith. 

Guard of honor : Brigadier General E. D. Townsend, Brevet Brigadier General 
James A. Ekin, Brigadier General A. D. Eaton, Brevet Major General J. G. 
Barnard, Brigadier General G. D. Ramsey, Brigadier General A. P. Howe, 
Brigadier General D. C. McCuUum, Major General David Hunter, Brigadier 
General J. C. Caldwell, Rear Admiral C. H. Davis, United States Navy ; Cap- 
tain William R. Taylor, United States Navy; Major T. H. Field, United States 
Marine Corps. 

The following gentlemen accompanied the train in an oflScial 
capacity : 

Captain Charles Penrose, Quartermaster and Commissary of Subsistence for 
the entire party ; Dr. Charles B. Brown, Embalmer ; Frank T. Sands, Under- 
taker. 

The following members of the Senate and House of Repre- 
sentatives were specially invited to accompany the remains to 
Springfield : 

Messrs. Pike of Maine, Rollins of New Hampshire, Baxter of Vermont, 
Hooper of Massachusetts, Dexter of Connecticut, Anthony of Rhode Island, 
Harris of New York, Cowan of Pennsylvania, Schenck of Ohio, Smith of Ken- 
tucky, Julian of Indiana, Ramsay of Minnesota, T. W. Terry of Michigan, 
Harlan of Iowa, Yates of Illinois, Washburne of Illinois, Farnsworth of Il- 
linois, Arnold of Illinois, Shannon of California, Williams of Oregon, Clarke 
of Kansas, Whaley of West Virginia, Nye of Nevada, Hitchcock of Nebraska, 
Bradford of Colorado, Wallace of Idaho, Newell of New Jersey, Phelps of 
Maryland; George T. Brown, Sergcant-at-Arms of the Senate; and N. G. Ord- 
way, Sergeant-at-Arms of the House of Representatives. 



110 

The following are the names of the delegates from Illinois 
appointed to accompany the remains to their last resting place : 

Governor Richard J. Oglesby; General Isham N. Haguie, Adjutant General 
Illinois; Colonel James H. Bowen, A. D. C; Colonel M. H. Hanna, A. D. C. ; 
Colonel D. B. James, A. D. C. ; Major S. Waite, A. D. C. ; Colonel D. L. Phillips, 
United States Marshal of the Southern District of Illinois, A. D. C. ; Hon. 
Jesse K. Dubois, Hon J. T. Stuart, Colonel John Williams, Dr. S. H. Melvin, 
Hon. S. M. Cullom, General John A. McClernand, Hon. Lyman Trumbull, Hon. 
Thomas A. Haine, Hon. John Wentworth, Hon. S. S. Hayes, Colonel R. M. 
Hough, Hon. S. W. Fuller, Captain J. B. Turner, Hon. J. Lawson, Hon. C. L. 
Woodman, Hon. G. W. Gage, G. H. Roberts, Esq., J. Connisky, Esq., Hon. L. 
Talcott, Hon. J. S. Fredenburg, Hon. Thomas J. Dennis, Lieutenant Governor 
William Bross, and Hon. Francis E. Sherman, Mayor of Chicago. 

Governors of States : Governor Morton of Indiana, Governor Brough of Ohio, 
Governor Stone of Iowa, together with their aides. 

Mayor Wallach, of W^ashington ; Mr. Garnett, President of the Baltimore and 
Ohio Railroad ; Colonel Lamon, United States Marshal ; Mr. S. A. Gobright, of 
the Associated Press ; U. H. Painter, of the Philadelphia Inqidrcr; Mr. Page, 
of the New York Tribune; and Dr. Adonis, of the Chicago Tribune, were also 
of the company. 

The Secretary of War sent official notes to those who were 
appointed guards of honor to accompany the remains, and to 
distinguished civilians, of which the following is a copy : 

[Free transportation.] 

War Department, Adjutant General's Office, 

Washington, April 22, 1865. 
Brevet Brigadier General James A. Ekin is invited to accompany the re- 
mains of the late President, Abraham Lincoln, from the city of Washington 
to Springfield, Illinois. 

By order of the Secretary of War : 

W. A. NICHOLS, 
Assidant Adjutant General. 



OFFICIAL ORDERS CONCERNING THE PRESI- 
DENT'S DEATH. 



War Department, 
Adjutant General's Office, April 16, 1865. 
General Orders No. 66. 

The following order of the Secretary of War announces to the armies of the 
IJnited States the untimely and lamentable death of the illustrious Abraham 
Lincoln, late President of the United States: 

War Department, 
Washington City, April 16, 1865. 

The distressing duty has devolved upon the Secretary of War to announce 
to the armies of the United States that, at 22 minutes after seven o'clock, on 
the morning of Saturday, the 15th day of April, 1865, Abraham Lincoln, 
President of the United States, died of a mortal wound inflicted upon him by 
an assassin. 

The armies of the United States will share with their fellow-citizens the feel- 
ing of grief and horror inspired by this most atrocious murder of their great 
and beloved President and Commander-in-Chief, and with profound sorrow 
will mourn his death as a national calamity. 

The headquarters of every department, post, station, fort, and arsenal will 
be draped in mourning for thirty days, and appropriate funeral honors will be 
paid by every army, and in every department, and at every military post, and 
at the Military Academy at West Point, to the memory of the late illustrious 
Chief Magistrate of the nation and Commander-in-Chief of its armies. 

Lieutenant General Grant will give the necessary instructions for carrying 
this order into effect. 

EDWIN M. STANTON, 

Secretary of War. 

On the day after the receipt of this order at the headquarters of every mili- 
tary division, department, army post, station, fort, and arsenal, and at the Mil- 
itary Academy at West Point, the troops and Cadets will be paraded at 10 

111 



112 

A. M., and the order read to them, after which all labors and operations for the 
day will cease and be suspended, as far as practicable in a state of war. 
The national flag will be displayed at half-staff. 

At dawn of day thirteen guns will be fired, and afterwards at intervals of 
thirty minutes between the rising and setting sun a single gun, and at the 
close of day a national salute of thirty-six guns. 

The officers of the armies of the United States will wear the badge of mourn- 
ing on the left arm and on their swords, and the colors of their commands and 
regiments will be put in mourning for the period of six months. 
By command of Lieutenant General Grant: 

W. A. NICHOLS, 
Assistant Adjutant General. 

Navy Department, 

Washington, April 15, 1865. 

The Department announces, with profound sorrow, to the officers and men of 
the Navy and Marine Corps, the death of Abraham Lincoln, the late President 
of the United States. Stricken down by the hands of an assassin, on the even- 
ing of the 14th instant, when surrounded by his family and friends, he 
lingered a few hours after receiving the fatal bullet, and died at seven o'clock 
and twenty-two minutes this morning. A grateful people had given their will- 
ing confidence to the patriot and statesman, under whose wise and successful 
administration the nation was just emerging from the civil strife which for four 
years has afflicted the land, when this terrible calamity fell upon the country. 
To him our gratitude was justly due, for to him, under God, more than to any 
other person, are we indebted for the successful vindication of the integrity of 
the Union and the maintenance of the power of the Republic. 

The officers of the Navy and of the Marine Corps will, as a manifestation 
of their respect for the exalted character, eminent position, and inestimable 
public services of the late President, and as an indication of their sense of the 
calamity which the country has sustained, wear the usual badge of mourning 
for six months. The Department further directs that upon the day following 
the receipt of this order, the commandants of squadrons, navy yards, and sta- 
tions will direct the ensign of every vessel in their several commands to be 
hoisted at half-mast, and a gun to be fired every half hour, beginning at sun- 
rise and ending at sunset. The flags of the several navy yards and Marine 
barracks will also be hoisted at half-mast. 

GIDEON WELLES, 
Secretary of the Navy. 

Department of State, 

Washington, April 17, 1865. 
The undersigned is directed to announce that the funeral ceremonies of the 
late lamented Chief Magistrate will take place at the Executive Mansion, in 
tliis city, at 12 o'clock M., on Wednesday, the 19th instant. 

The various religious denominations throughout the country are invited to 



113 

meet in tlioir respective places of worship at that hour, for the purpose of sol- 
emnizing the occasion with appropriate ceremonies. 

W. HUNTER, 
Acting Secretary of State. 

Navy Depaetment, April 17, 1865. 
By order of the President of the United States, the Navy Department will 
be closed on Wednesday next, the day of the funeral solemnities of the late 
President of the United States. 

Labor will also be suspended on that day at each of the navy yards and 
navy stations, and upon all the vessels of the United States. 

Tlie flags of all vessels, and at all navy yards and stations, and marine bar- 
racks, will be kept at half-mast during the day, and at 12 o'clock, meridian, 
twenty-one minute guns will be fired by the senior officer of each squadron 
and the commandants of each of the navy yards and stations. 

GIDEON WELLES, 
Secretary of the Navy. 

Navy Department, April 17, 1865. 
Vice Admiral D. G. Farragut and Rear Admiral William B. Shubrick have 
been designated to make the necessary arrangements on the part of the Navy 
and ilarine corps, for attending, on Wednesday next, the funeral of the late 
President of the United States. 

GIDEON WELLES, 
Secretary of the Navy. 

Navy Department, 

Washington, April 17, 1865. ■ 
Officers of the Navy and Marine corps will assemble at the Navy Depart- 
ment, in uniform, at 10 o'clock A. M., on Wednesday next, for the purpose of 
attending the funeral of the late President. 

GIDEON WELLES, 
Secretary of the Navy. 

Treasury Department, A2:)ril 17, 1865. 

The Secretary of the Treasury, with profound sorrow, announces to the 
revenue marine the death of Abraham Lincoln, late President of the United 
States. He died in this city on the morning of the 15th instant, at twenty-two 
minutes past seven o'clock. 

The officers of the revenue marine will, as a manifestation of their respect 
for the exalted character and eminent public services of the illustrious dead, 
and of their sense of the calamity the country has sustained by this aiHicting 
dispensation of Providence, wear crape on the left arm and upon the hilt of the 
sword for six months. 

It is further directed that funeral honors be paid on board all revenue vessels 
in commission, by firing thirty-six minute guns, commencing at meridian on the 
day after the receipt of this order, and by wearing their ilags at half-mast. 

HUGH McCULLOCH, 

Secretary of the Treasury. 



114 

Post Office Department, 

Washington, April 17, 1865. 
To Deputy Postmasters : 

Business in all the post offices of the United States will be suspended and the 
offices closed from 11 A. M. to 3 P. M. on Wednesday, the 19th instant, during 
the funeral solemnities of Abraham Lincoln, late President of the United States. 

W. DENNISON, 

Postmaster General. 

Department of State, 

Washington, April 17, 1865. 
It is hereby ordered that in honor to the memory of our late illustrious Chiet 
Magistrate, all officers and others subject to the orders of the Secretary of State 
wear crape upon the left arm for the period of six months. 

W. HUNTER, 
Acting Secretary of State. 

Department of the Interior, 
Washington, April 18, 1865. 
It is hereby ordered that, in honor of the memory of the late Chief Magis- 
trate of the nation, the officers and employees of this Department wear crape 
on the left arm for the period of six months. 

I. P. USHER, 
Secretary of the Interior. 

GENERAL MEADE's ORDERS. 

Headquarters Army or the Potomac, 

April IG, 1865. 
General Order No. 15. 

The Major General commanding announces to the army that official intelli- 
gence has been received of the death, by assassination, of the President of the 
United States. 

The President died at twenty-two minutes past seven on the morning of the 
the 15th inst. 

To this army, this announcement will be received with profound sorrow, and 
deep horror and indignation. The President, by the active interest he ever 
took in the welfare of this army, and by his presence in frequent visits, espe- 
cially during the recent operations, had particularly endeared himself to both 
officers and soldiers, all of whom regarded him as a generous friend. An 
honest man, a noble patriot, and sagacious statesman has fallen ! No greater 
loss at this particular moment could have befallen our country. Whilst we 
bow with submission to the unfathomable and inscrutable decrees of Divine 
Providence, let us earnestly pray that God in His mercy wiU so order that this 
terrible calamity shall not interfere with the prosperity and happiness of our 
beloved country. 

GEO. G. MEADE, 
Major General Commanding. 



115 

Headquarters Army of the Potomac, 

Ajiril 17. 
General Order No. 16. 

In obedience to General Order No. 69, current series, from the War Depart- 
ment, the flags at all the camps and stations in this army will bo kept at half- 
mast during Wednesday next, the day appointed for the funeral of the late 
President of the United States, and all labor will be suspended for the day 
throughout the limits of this command. The commanding officers of the vari- 
ous corps are charged with the execution of this order at the camps and de- 
tached stations under their respective orders. Twenty-one minute guns will 
be fired under the direction of the Chief of Artillery at twelve o'clock M., on 
the day mentioned. 

By command of Major General Meade : 

G. D. RUGGLES, A. A. O. 

GENERAL SHERMAN's ORDER ANNOUNCING THE PRESIDENT'S 

DEATH. 

Headquarters Military Div. of tue Mississippi, 

In the Field, Raleigh, April 17, 1865. 
Special Field Order No. 50. 

The General commanding announces with pain and sorrow that on tlie even- 
ing of the 14th inst., at the theatre, in Washington city, his Excellency the 
President of the United States, Mr. Lincoln, was assassinated by one who 
uttered the State motto of Virginia. At the same time the Secretary of State, 
Mr. Seward, while suffering from a broken arm, was also stabbed by another 
murderer, in his own liouse, but still survives, and his son was wounded, sup- 
posed fatally. 

It is believed by persons capable of judging, that other high officers were 
designed to share the same fate. Thus it seems that our enemy, despairing of 
meeting us in manly warfare, begins to resort to the assassin's tools. Your 
General does not wish you to infer that this is universal, for he knows that the 
great mass of the Confederate army would scorn to sanction such acts; but he 
believes it the legitimate consequence of rebellion against rightful authority. 
We have met every phase which this war has assumed, and must now be pre- 
pared for it in its last and worst shape, that of assassins and guerillas; but 
woe unto the people who seek to expend their wild passions in such a manner, 
for there is but one dread result. 

By order of Major General W. T. Sherman : 

L. M. DAYTON, 
Major and Assistant Adjutant General. 

A letter from General Slierman's army describes the feeling 
as follows : 

Officers met and passed in silence, scarcely daring to break the dreadful se- 
cret to each other. Universal gloom settled like a pall over the place. Sad 
faces were everywhere ; all hearts were heavy ; all minds appalled by the 



IIG 

dreadful news of this triple murder. At Gen. S:holield's headquarters, I have 
seen officers and men in tears, as if mourning for the loss of a father or beloved 
friend. A sorrow like that which fell upon Egypt, when the angel of death 
smote the first-born, broods over all minds. Others, witli clenched fists and 
firm-set teeth, were calling for vengeance upon the whole race of traitors, from 
Jeff. Davis down. A people who could conceive of such transcendent wicked- 
ness, and every one who can apologize for or excuse it, they say ought to be 
blotted from the face of the earth. 

The whole current of feeling in the army has been changed by this crowning 
act of villainy — this final, fiendish stab at the nation's life. 

The officers and soldiers everywhere speak in terms of the highest admiration 
of the great and good man who has fallen. He seems to have been spared by 
a kind Providence to witness the fruit of his long and wearisome labors for the 
salvation of his country, and then has mingled his blood with the thousands 
who have fallen in the struggle, in a manner to show to the world, as no other 
event could teach, the fiendish spirit which has animated these enemies of lib- 
erty, of the country, and of mankind. I hear nothing but words of the most 
affectionate eulogy of the departed President, and earnest prayers ascend from 
many thousand hearts that God should disappoint the assassins, and yet spare 
the precious lives of Mr. Seward and his son. 

OBSEQUIES IN THE ARMY. 

General Headers Headquarters. 

Headquarters Aemy of the Potomac, 

April 17, 1865. 
The announcement cf the assassination of Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Seward and 
his son was received throughout this army with the utmost sorrow. Every man 
seemed to think it the greatest calamity that could have possibly happened just 
at this time. Should the assassins be found, and turned over to the army to be 
dealt with, their punishment would be swift and sure, and such as to strike 
terror into the heart of every sympathizer with treason in the United States. 
The citizens living in the country here express their deep regret at the occur- 
rence, and think it the worst thing that could possibly have happened for the 
Southern people just at this juncture. 

Tlie Sixth Corps. 

Headquarters Sixth Armt Corps, 

BURKESVILLE JuNCTI .N, April 19, 1SG5. 

The death of the President still monopolizes a large share of the thouglit of 
this army. It is the one all-absorbing subject of conversation. The man had 
so thoroughly endeared himself to both officers and men, and all seem to feel 
that they have lost a dear personal friend. Every day I hear fresh instances 
of his goodness related — incidents which go to prove that amidst the weighty 
cares of his high station, he always found time to attend to the numerous letters 
sent him by the wives, mothers, and sisters of soldiers, asking him to inform 



117 

them what had become of their husband, son, or brother, who enlisted months 
or years ago as a private soldier in the great armj' of the Union, and of whom 
they had received no tidings since his regiment marched off down South. 
Scores of these documents, bearing the President's well-known autograph, have 
found their waj' to the headquarters of the company in which the person so 
anxiously inquired for had enlisted. Sometimes the glad tidings, "He is alive 
and well," went North: and at others the company commander penned the 
sorrowful words, " He was killed in battle." This thoughtfulness and true 
goodness of heart had made the President peculiarly beloved by the soldiers, 
and words are but feeble exponents of the sorrow and rage excited among tiiem 
by the news of his tragical death. 

To-day being the time for Mr. Lincoln's funeral to take place, General Meade 
issued a general order in relation to the matter, and by the time this despatch 
will leave the minute guns will be booming out the soldiers' requiem for their 
late and beloved President. The flags of the Array of the Potomac will be 
floating at half-mast, and through the pine woods, in whose depths the troops 
are encamped, solemn dirges will sound their mournful refrains. 

General Hancock's Jlppeal to the Colored People. 

Headquaetees Middle Militaey Division, 

Washington, D. C, April 24, 1865. 
To the Colored People of the District of Columbia and of Maryland, of Alex- 
andria and the Border Counties of Virginia : 

Your President has been murdered! He has fallen by the assassin, and with- 
out a moment's warning, simply and solely because he was your friend and the 
friend of our country. Had he been unfaithful to you and to the great cause 
of human freedom he might have lived. The pistol from which he met his 
death, though held by Booth, was fired by the hands of treason and slavery. 
Think of this, and remember how long and how anxiously this good man 
labored to break your chains and to make you happy. I now appeal to you, 
by every consideration which can move loyal and grateful hearts, to aid in dis- 
covering and arresting his murderer. Concealed by traitors, he is believed to be 
lurking somewhere within the limits of the District of Columbia, or the States 
of Maryland or Virginia. Go forth, then, and watch, and listen, and inquire, 
and search, and pray, by day and by night, until you shall have succeeded in 
dragging this monstrous and bloody criminal from his liiding place. You can 
do much ; even the humblest and feeblest among you, by patience and unwearied 
vigilance, may render the most important assistance. Large rewards have been 
offered by the government, and by municipal authorities, and they will be paid 
for the apprehension of the murderer, or for any information which will aid in 
his arrest. But I feel that you need no such stimulus as this. You will hunt 
down this cowardly assassin of your best friend as you would the murderer of 
your own father. Do tliis, and God, whose ser\-ant lias been slain, and the 
country wliich has given you freedom, will bless you for this noble act of duty. 
All information which will had to the arrest of Booth, or Suratt, or Herold, 
should be communicated to these headquarters, or to General Holt, Judge Ad- 



118 

vocate General, at Wasliington, or, if immediate actioa is required, then to the 
nearest military authorities. 

All ofEcers and soldiers in this command, and all loyal people, are enjoined 
to increased vigilance. 

W. S. HANCOCK, 
Major General U. S. Volunteers, Corndg Middle Military Division. 

THE GENERAL COURT-MARTIAL. 

The General Court- Martial sitting at 183 G street, of which 
Brigadier General Briggs is President, in view of the national 
bereavement, adjourned, and draped the court building, and 
each member assumed the usual badge of mourning. 

The Judge Advocate. Major Burnham, U. S. A., made the 
following appropriate and feeling remarks preparatory to the 
motion to adjourn : 

Me. President : It becomes my painful duty to announce to the court the 
death of the Chief Magistrate of this nation. While yet in the fullness of life 
and strengtli, and after having attained the almost complete accomplishment of 
the great purposes of his administration, his invaluable life has been brought, 
to an untimely end — stricken down by the hand of an assassin. As citizens, 
as soldiers, we mourn the death of our President, of our Commander-in-Chief, 
feeling that to the cause wliich lie, more than any other man, represented, we 
had devoted our best energies through years of perilous strife; and that in his 
fall, this great nation, of which he, though but one man, formed so important a 
part, has met with a calamity, the extent of which, in this first hour of blind- 
ing sorrow, no eye can adequately measure, no heart can fully appreciate. 

For the four years now past, death in various forms — murderous assault and 
midnight assassination — has threatened a life so precious to the interests of 
mankind ; but still a watchful Providence guarded his footsteps and spared 
him to the nation. 

His re-election, triumphantly sustaining him and the great principles of a 
free and permanent republican government, whicli he represented, had taken 
place without disturbance ; he had been again inaugurated with the peaceful 
simplicity characteristic of our institutions ; he had once more proceeded to the 
discharge of the high duties devolving upon him in his great office ; and now, 
just as our victorious arms have been crowned with triumph, before the rejoic- 
ings of the nation have died into silence, with its detonating ordnance still 
ringing in our ears, its blazing bonfires, the splendor of its illuminations, the 
waving of its myriad banners still dazzling our eyes, and welcoming to the na- 
tional heart the tidings that peace again hovered over us, and that the land 
which had been drenched in fraternal blood should again return to the arts of 
peace — in this hour of triumpli, in tlio moment of exultant joy, the hand of 
death has stricken our leader. 



119 

As a nation we can do naught but mourn ; our hearts must bow in reverence 
before God, and penitence for the sins, whether our own or those of our fellows, 
which have brought upon us this untimely and dreadful affliction. The great 
cause of philanthropy throughout the world has lost its most powerful, most 
persistent, and most practical champion ; humanity its ablest advocate, its most 
untiring friend. A great man has passed from earth ; his life has been given 
back to Him from whom he received it ; and the universal voice of this nation 
in its sorrow, reviewing that life and its labors, says, " Well done." 

All words fail me to express or even indicate one thousandth part of the 
emotions which rise in our breasts and struggle for utterance at this time. In 
such an hour we feel the poverty of language to body forth the fulness of our 
hearts. 

But though conscious that a great crime has been perpetrated ; that treason 
has culminated in its most fearful and most horrid act, adding parricide to its 
black catalogue of crimes, we cannot but feel, while mourning our beloved 
Chief Magistrate, that still the Government, over which he so ably presided, 
stands as firmly as ever ; that the principles which he so earnestly sustained 
still remain for our guidance, still live in our hearts ; and while upon his bier 
we drop tears of sorrow over his untimely fate, we will not forget that we yet 
owe a duty to our country, in discharging which we shall honor the memory 
and fulfil the purposes of the dead, and preserve the lives and perpetuate the 
liberties of the living, restoring to this distracted land that unit}-, peace, and 
good-will which he so ably and earnestly sought, and for which he laid down 
his life. 

ACTION OF THE DIPLOMATIC BODY. 

The various members of the Diplomatic body were presented 
to the Actin2: Secretary of State. As the Dean of that body, 
Baron Von Gerolt, the Russian Minister, addressed the Presi- 
dent as follows : 

Mr. President : The representatives of foreign nations have assembled here 
to express to your Excellency their feelings at the deplorable events of which 
they have been witnesses — to say how sincerely they share the national mourn- 
ing for the cruel fate of the late President, Abraham Lincoln, and how deeply 
they sympathize with the Government and people of the United States in their 
great affliction. With equal sincerity we tender to you, Mr. President, our 
best wishes for the welfare and prosperity of the United States, and for your 
personal health and happiness. May we be allowed, also, Mr. President, to 
give utterance on this occasion to our sincerest hopes for an early re-establish- 
ment of peace in this great country, and for the maintenance of the friendly 
relations between the Government of the United States and the Governments 
which we represent. 



120 



SWISS DELEGATION. 

A delegation, composed of tlie Swiss residents of Washing- 
ton, Baltimore, Pliiladelpliia, and New York, waited on Presi- 
dent Johnson, to express their gratification at our recent victo- 
ries and sympathy in the late national calamity. 

The Swiss Consul General, Mr. Hitz, resident of Washing- 
ton, after an introduction to the President by the Acting Secre- 
tary of State, Mr. Hunter, expressed the sentiments of the 
delegation in the following address : 

Mr. Peesident : Your Excellency, no doubt, will readily appreciate why it 
is that the citizens of Switzerland, residing in the United States, were unable 
to remain passive spectators of the important events and tragic occurrences 
they have witnessed transpire during the past month. 

They now desire me to express to you publicly the intenser feelings of sym- 
pathy which have been engendered in their hearts. 

Like all loyal Americans, my countrymen rejoice over the recent brilliant 
Buccesses of your arms, successes which, having been planned with marked 
ability, in a few days gave the death-stroke to the most formidable and unjusti- 
fiable rebellion which history bears record of. Our joy, like yours, has been 
marred by horror at the odiousness of a crime unheard of in the annals of re- 
publics. Well can it be said, that in the death of the late lamented President, 
Abraham Lincoln, your country was robbed of a dear father, and thus added 
another, and the most precious, to the long list of sacrifices which it has been 
called upon to make during the late troublous times. But the Swiss, as repub- 
licans, are proud to bear witness to the fact that the great Republic of the 
United States, owing to the wisdom of her institutions and to the energy of her 
people, shows at the present moment to the world her ability to pass unscathed 
through the severest calamities, to overcome the most manifold trials, and defy 
as well the openly-planned attacks of anarchy as also the secret conspiracies of 
assassins. A profound and general mourning extends over the land, but devoid 
of those political convulsions which would infallibly follow such events in 
many other countries. The whole nation is afHicted, but remains unmoved 
and vigilant. The law inflexible, yet scarcely ceased not an instant to reign 
Bupreme, and the great work which is being performed continues uninterrupted. 
May your Republic always overcome, in like manner, such other trials as God, 
in His inscrutable providence, may yet have in store for you. 

May the noble victim whom we all mourn, the greatest of this struggle, also 
be its last, and may his venerable tomb become the seal to the restoration of the 
Union on a more solid basis than ever before. 

The time is near, and we can already hail with joy the national greatness 
which shall succeed all your trials, so fruitful in results. 



121 

The faith in the final triumph of right and justice, faith in the right of lib- 
erty and republican institutions, M'ill everywhere be strengthened. 

We cannot terminate without asking your Excellency to accept also the ex- 
pression of our entire confidence in your ability so to administer your govern- 
ment as to fulfil its important mission, at home as well as abroad. Your past 
public life, already re-affirmed by the wisdom of your acts as Chief Magistrate, 
is a sure guaranty that the task which so unexpectedly devolved upon you has 
fallen into good hands. 

President Johnson, replying, said: 

Mr. Consul General Hitz: I thank you for the sympathy which you have 
expressed, on behalf of your countrymen, for our recent bereavement, and for 
your congratulations upon the success of our arms. We can have no distrust 
of the heartiness of these feelings. Switzerland herself has had her trials, and 
has been called on to endure sacrifices. She has, however, triumphed over all, 
and her heroism, patience, and self-denial have had, and will continue to have, 
the efi"ect of strengthening similar qualities in the people of other countries. 

The new French Minister, the Marquis de Moutholon, on 
presenting liis credentials to tlie President, expressed the sym- 
pathy of the French government as follows : 

Me. President : I am happy to bring hither, on a solemn occasion, the loyal 
and frank expressions of the wishes the Emperor, my august sovereign, forms 
for the complete restoration of peace and of concord on the continent of Amer- 
ica. The whole of the French people, partaking in the same thouglit, will 
always view with satisfaction the consolidation of the majesty and greatness 
of the United States. 

Animated with these sentiments of deep feeling for the American Union, 
their imperial Majesties, as well as all France, share equally in the grief in 
which the most atrocious of crimes has just plunged the Government and people 
of the United States. 

President Johnson, in closing his reply, said 

I offer you my hearty thanks for the sympathy you express, on behalf ol 
their imperial Majesties, for the recent tragical events in this metropolis. 



TRIBUTES OF THE STATES. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 

Washington, D. C, April 18, 1865. 

Pursuant to a published call, the citizens of New Hampshire, 
resident at the national capital, met at the State A,o^ency rooms, 
on Seventh street, for the purpose of making arrangements to 
attend the funeral of our late President. The meeting, upon 
being called to order, proceeded to organize, with the choice of 
the following officers : Hon. E. A. Rollins, chairman ; J. A. 
Prescott, secretary. 

Mr. Rollins, on taking the chair, addressed the meeting at 
considerable length, setting forth the praiseworthiness of its 
object, and in behalf of those present, and the old Granite 
State, paid a high and eulogistic tribute of respect to the 
memory of our lamented Chief Magistrate. 

Hon. N. G. Ordway, in some brief remarks, spoke very feel- 
ingly of the occasion that had called the sons of New Hamp- 
shire together, and pleasingly alluded to the great and good 
character of the one whose last eartlily honors were about to 
transpire. 

On motion of Mr. Morgan, a committee of three were ap- 
pointed to draft resolutions, consisting of F. H. Morgan, J. C. 
Tasker, and Major W. II. II. Allen. The following report was 
adopted : 

Resolved, That the unparalleled atrocity of the crimes which have turned 
days set aside in so many places for national rejoicing into days of national 
mourning well-nigh strikes us dumb. We are lifted above the capacities of 
common soeech by emotions born of such a terrible and unlooked-for calamity. 



124 

2. That the death of President Lincoln comes to each one of us with all the 
bitterness of a personal bereavement. Our love has grounded itself upon the 
beautiful symmetry of his character, and our confidence justified itself in the 
glorious record of his deeds, which have been an epistle known and read of all 
men. 

3. That we thank God that this martyr of liberty was permitted to catch a 
glimpse of the promised land; that in answer to his labors and his prayers, he 
heard at last the liallelujahs of grateful freedmen. We thank Him that "the 
good which a man does lives after him," and that the weapon of the assassin 
which let out the life-blood of this exalted patriot could not unhinge our 
memory from his deeds in the past nor his fame from the future. We rejoice 
that his life, though so shortened in years, was so well rounded for time, and 
that those attributes which most ennoble humanity, born in this man and 
fostered by circumstances, were permitted to so ripen and strengthen and be 
brought to bear upon his race, that he shall in all coming time be pointed at 
by the educators of youth as a patriot statesman, whose virtues lifted him above 
the reach of calumny or reproach. 

4. That we approach with solemn awe the circle in which our lamented Pres- 
ident was wont to rest himself from the cares and troubles of state. If there is 
an exultation in public woe, there is a sacredness in private grief. Though he 
was so much to us, miserable comforters must we be to those who knew him 
amidst the beautiful amenities of home life. In our weakness we entrust his 
stricken wife and children to the solace which has given strength to the widow 
and fatlierless since the widow and the fatherless have dwelt upon the earth. 

5. That the abomination of slavery has culminated in the murder of the 
nation's benefactor. We are not to look calmly upon the spilling of our best 
blood. Trust in God's justice and providence does not teach supineness v/hen 
murderers go at large. Instinct louder than law calls for the punishment of the 
perpetrators of this foul crime, and sainted blood cries from the ground that 
every vestige of the poison which has festered into this horrible wound shall 
be cleansed from the nation. Let every one who partaketh of the accursed 
thing be put out of the camp. Let mercy temper justice, but let not justice de- 
generate into weakness. Let murderers and traitors take murderers' and 
traitors' rewards, and let the expression of public sentiment be so cogent that 
submission to order and right shall become a necessity where it may not be a 
virtue. Our country cannot die. Thrice purified shall she come out from these 
troublous times ; and may we so conduct as to have ourselves written upon this 
page of her history as a people not unconscious of her capacity and her destiny. 

6. That gratitude for God's goodness in so wonderfully preserving Secre- 
tary Seward and his family has ameliorated in no small degree our national 
calamity. A great man has been saved when a great man was most needed. 

7. That to Andrew Johnson, so suddenly called to the presidency so cruelly 
vacated, in behalf of ourselves and our State, we pledge our unwavering faith 
and support. His own ability, years ago, carried him to prominence among 
great men. Long experience has matured his judgment, and his patriotism, put 
to the severest tests, glows brighter by the trial. We accept him as the ap- 
pointed of God — our nation's leader and deliverer. 



125 

8. That, as expressive of our sorrow at the death of President Lincohi, we 
wear the usual badge of mourning upon our left arm for the period of thirty 
days. 

J. A. PRESCOTT, Secretary. 

MASSACHUSETTS, 

Tlie citizens of Massachusetts met on Monday, tlie 18th of 
April, at the Massachusetts State Agency, to take action in 
reference to the death and burial of President Lincoln. 

Colonel Tufts called the meeting to order. Judge M. S. 
Stone presided, and I. S. Brown acted as secretary. The 
meeting was opened witli ])rayer by Rev. N. M. Gaylord. On 
motion, Major Benjamin Pcrloy Poor, I. E. Farbank, and 
Guilford White were appointed to prepare suitable resolutions. 
The meeting was addressed by Hon. H. S. Dawes, Hon. D. W. 
Gooch, members of Congress, General Benjamin F. Butler, 
Hon. John Prince, and Rev. N. M. Gaylord. 

Resolutions were reported by Major Poor, and adopted, as 
follows : 

Whereas it has pleased Almighty God, in His mysterious yet wise providence, 
to take out of this world the soul of our deceased Chief Magistrate, Abraham 
Lincoln, it becomes us men of Massachusetts, residents or sojourners at the 
national capital, to publicly express our sorrow at the loss of one who has 
been foremost in perfecting these United States of America as a free and 
independent nation : 

Resolved, That we regard Abraham Lincoln as a noble type of the American 
citizen. His private life has ever been characterized by purity, integrity, 
wisdom, moderation, genial manners ; while his public career has been marked 
by a love of liberty, sterling patriotism, persuasive eloquence, eagerness to 
exercise mercy, perfect integrity, and a desire to perform what he believed to 
be his duty towards the citizens of every State and Territory, no matter 
whether they were loj'al or rebellious, white or black. Knowing his duties, he 
fulfilled them ; knowing his prerogatives, he exercised them ; strong in the 
consciousness of rectitude, and only asking the support of the people, to 
whom he appealed rather than to the politicians, he manfully performed what 
he believed to be his duty to his family, to his friends, to his country, to the 
human race, and to his God. 

Resolved, That in Andrew Johnson we feel that the deceased President has a 
successor, whose simplicity of character, singleness of purpose, and moral 
courage, will enable him to carry out the work so gloriously commenced. We 
feel confident that our beloved Commonwealth, which has ever been ready to 
strengthen and to sustain the deceased, will give President Johnson a cordial, 



126 

earnest, and hearty support, endorsing his noble sentiment, that " since kind- 
ness has been repaid by assassination, treason is a crime to be punished with 
justice." 

Resolved, That we tender an expression of our heart-felt sympathy to the 
bereaved family of the deceased, who can best appreciate his good and noble 
qualities of heart, and who can be comforted by their recollections of his pri- 
vate virtues and of his public services. A nation mourns with them. 

Resolved, That copies of these resolutions be transmitted to the family of the 
deceased, to the President of the United States, and the Governor of Massachu- 
setts, as a memorial of the heart-felt sorrow with which the sons of the Bay 
State in Washington have learned the death of Abraham Lincoln. 

Governor Andrew, on the 17th of April, sent a message to 
the Massachusetts Legislature, then in session, of which the 
following is an extract : 

Standing, as we do, by the open grave of Abraham Lincoln, we seem to have 
taken now a new departure in our history. The cannon which fulminated the 
thunders of rebellion against the walls of Fort Sumter were the signal guns of 
a revolution which — turned back upon itself by the glorious uprising of a free 
people — has advanced, on its swelling tide, the Cause which the rebellion was 
intended to destroy. Thus far the moral defeat of treason has been exemplary 
and overwhelming. The vigor and persistency of the people, their energy in 
the greatest exigencies of a nation, while the tremendous and dreadful behests 
of war summoned them to duty, have been fully vindicated. 

We had outlived the weary period of delays and military discouragement; 
through many disappointments, and out of many disasters, we had risen to the 
loftiest and sunniest heights of assured, decisive, and overwhelming victory in 
the field of arms. Four years, to a single day, had intervened while this work 
of the American people was going on, when upon the anniversary of the attack 
on Sumter, the flag of the Union, borne back with pomp and pageant, was 
restored with becoming ceremony to its citadel, by the same hands which had 
been compelled by superior force to strike ife-in surrender. Abraham Lincoln 
ha.d been spared and sustained through all these weary months and years to 
witness the majestic triumphs, the conquering marches of our resistless ar- 
mies, to hear the last wail of disloyal discontent in the loyal States, to receive 
the united congratulations of the acclaiming millions of his countrymen, to 
reap a sweeter and richer reward of deliverance and victory than had ever 
been enjoyed by any ruler of the sons of men. His career closed at a moment 
when its dramatic unity was complete, and when his departure from life on 
earth was the apotheosis, and the translation by which, defended against all 
the shocks and mishaps of time, he passed on to immortality. Without dis- 
paragement of his loftiness and fulness, and without detracting from the meas- 
ure of his glory, may we not recognize in his career a direction supreme above 
the devices or conceptions of man, and, seeing how a Divine hand has led us 
through these paths of trial, yield confidingly to its guidance in all future 
years. 



121 



CONNECTICUT. 



At a meeting of the citizens of Connecticut, held at the rooms 
of Governor Buckingham, in Willards' Hotel, city of Wash- 
ington, April 17, 1SG5, Governor Buckingham was called upon 
to preside, and W. A. Benedict was chosen secretary. 

Governor Buckingham stated that the object of the meeting 
was to give some fitting form of expression to the feelings of 
the citizens of Connecticut, in view of the great calamity which 
has spread its pall of darkness over the nation in the death of 
its honored head, and to make arrangements for participating 
in the approaching funeral ceremonies. 

Suggestions were made by Hon. James Dixon and others. 

The following committees were appointed : On resolutions 
expressive of the feelings of the meeting, Hon. Lafayette S. 
Foster, Hon. James Dixon, and H. H. Starkweather ; on ar- 
rangements for participating in the funeral ceremonies, Hon. 
James Dixon, W. A. Thompson, Col. H. H. Osgood, J. A. 
Wheelock, and Colonel J. H. Almy. 

On motion of Senator Dixon, the name of Governor Buck- 
ingham was added as chairman of this committee. 

After further suggestions from gentlemen present, the meet- 
ing adjourned to meet at the same place to-morrow afternoon 
at two o'clock. 

April 18, 1865, the meeting met, pursuant to adjournment, 
when the Hon. James Dixon presented the following resolu- 
tions ; which were unanimously adopted : 

Resolved, That, sharing with the people of Connecticut the unutterable sor- 
row which saddens every household and wrings every patriotic heart with a 
sense of personal bereavement, in the death of the late lamented President of 
the United States, we unite with them in expressing our profound grief, and 
mingle our lamentations with theirs under the crushing blow which has struck 
our nation from the summit of universal gratitude and joy into the utmost 
depths of affliction and mourning. 

Resolved, That we mourn the loss of the Peeserver of the Union, raised 
up by the hand of the Almighty to lead our nation through the perils of the 
great rebellion ; that in him wo recognize the guiding intellect, the conscientious 
purpose, the unfailing judgment, the resolute will, the unselfish heart which 
were needed to constitute the leader of the nation in its hour of deepest peril ; 
and that his humanitv, his confiding trust in God, his devoted love of his coun- 



128 

try and of the human race, his entire consecration to the spirit of universal 
liberty, have placed him among the foremost of the great benefactors of man- 
kind, who have blessed the world and shed honor upon the human character. 

Resolved, That while we mourn the unspeakable loss which our nation has 
suffered, we devoutly offer to the Great Euler of the universe our reverent and 
earnest thanks that He permitted our departed and lamented President 
to live and rule over our imperilled country until, under his wise and firm con- 
trol, aided by the Almighty hand, he was permitted to see the rebel hosts de- 
feated and surrendered, their capital and their seaports restored to the authority 
of the nation, their military power overthrown, their wicked leaders driven 
from their seats of power, the great cause of the rebellion — human slavery — 
abolished and destroyed, and liberty and equal rights for all made the basis of 
our national existence. 

Resolved, That we tender to the President of the United States, the Honora- 
ble Andrew Johnson, the assurance of our earnest and unqualified support in 
the performance of the arduous and responsible duties now devolved upon him, 
and that we invoke for him the same conscientious purpose, the same resolute 
will, and the same Divine inspiration and support by which his great predeces- 
sor was sustained and upheld by the Almighty hand. 

Resolved, That we acknowledge with gratitude the providential interposition 
by which our beloved and honored Secretary of State — the confidential friend 
and adviser of Abraham Lincoln — has been protected and preserved from the 
dangers and violence to which he has been exposed; that we offer to him our 
deepest sympathy, and unite in the prayers of the nation for his speedy and 
perfect restoration to health, and for the safety and preservation of his family. 

Resolved, That we v/ill, as representatives of our State, attend the funeral 
services of our lamented President in a body, and wear the usual badge ol 
mourning for sixty days. 

Resolved, That we tender to the family of the deceased President the assur- 
ance of our deep and heartfelt sympathy in the great affliction to which God 
has called them, and that we humbly and devoutly supplicate for them the 
blessing and support of their Pleavenly Father. 

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be transmitted to the family of 
the late President, to the Honorable Secretary of State, and to the President 
of the United States, and that they be published in the public press of Con - 
necticut. 

The reading of the above I'esolutions was followed by remarks 
from Hon. James F. Babcock, Senator Dixon, Governor Buck- 
ingham, Hon. H. D. Sperry, H. H. Starkweather, A. H. By- 
ington, W. A. Thompson, A. F. Williams, and others, appre- 
ciative of the character and worth of the late President, and 
of the irreparable loss the nation has sustained by his death ; 
expressive of hearty sympathy for the stricken family, and 
for the afflicted family of tiie Secretary of State ; expressive 



129 

also of the fullest confidence in the integrity, ability, and pa- 
triotic devotion to the interests of his country of the Honorable 
Andrew Johnson, now President of the United States. 

Governor Buckingham spoke as follows : 

In all my intercourse with the late President, I have found him calm, self- 
possessed, discerning, honest in intention, and conscientious in action. I did 
not regard him as perfect. I have found no perfection on earth ; but I am firm 
in the belief that no man would have been found so well adapted to the crisis 
in our national affairs, no one who could so wisely and successfully have dis- 
charged the duties of the executive office through a season unparalleled in the 
history of nations. 

In the stroke that has smitten him down when he seemed more than ever 
to be needed I recognize the hand of God. 

It is a bitter cup we have had presented to our lips. It is a grievous burden 
we are called upon to bear. But in our sorrow we must not forget that the 
providence brings with it lessons of the deepest import. 

It is well for us to study these lessons. God is just. It has sometimes ap- 
peared to me that there was a growing disposition to show too much clemency 
to the traitors who have plotted the ruin of this glorious republic. I have 
feared there might be danger of degrading magnanimity into the robbery of 
justice. Perhaps God would teach us by the terrible blow He has inflicted as 
one of its lessons that we must be just, and punish according to its full desert 
the treason that has culminated in such an act of atrocity. We may have 
needed just such teaching to reveal to us the full enormity of the crime that 
has been perpetrated against our government. And now that we have been 
taught, our way is plain— let us show mercy to whom mercy is due, and execute 
justice upon those whose crimes are too great to be forgiven. To the deluded 
masses of the South, mercy is due — to the leaders in the great rebellion, no 
mercy can be shown. 

In the future of this nation I have confidence. Under the guiding hand of 
the Almighty Kuler of nations we shall fulfil our destiny. I have confidence 
also in him so unexpectedly called upon to assume the responsibilities of the 
executive office. I believe Andrew Johnson fully realizes the responsibilities 
now devolved upon him. I have confidence in his honesty of purpose, his 
ability as a statesman, and his earnest devotion to the interests of the country. 
I shall be much mistaken if he does not prove himself equal to the great 
emergency. He shall have my cordial and hearty support. 

NEW YORK. 

A numerously-attended meeting of the citizens of New York 
was held on the 17th April, at the New York State Agency. 

9 



130 

Jud^^e J. N. Granger presided. The following preamble and 
resolutions, ofifered. by Colonel Goodrich, were passed : 

Whereas his Excellency Abraham Lincoln, the President of the United 
States, died on the morning of the 15th of April, from wounds received at the 
hands of an assassin ; and upon the same evening the Hon. William H. Seward, 
Secretary of State, was assassinated in his bed, and his two sons perhaps mor- 
tally wounded ; therefore 

Resolved, That in the death of our beloved President our whole country has 
lost its best and dearest friend ; that his life is the brightest page of our nation's 
glory, his death the saddest of our nation's sorrows ; that we prayerfully ask 
Him who ruleth all the people of the earth in His providence to work out His 
purpose in this appalling calamity that has gone so near to the hearts of the 
American people, and to decree and hasten that end which our lamented Presi- 
dent so nearly consummated, and to which he died a martyr — namely. Christian 
liberty and American Union. 

Resolved, That we tender to the bereaved wife and children of him who has 
been so suddenly stricken down our warmest sympathies and condolence ; that 
we offer also to the highly-esteemed Secretary of State, and each member of his 
family, our earnest hopes for their recovery to health and usefulness in the high 
places which they have so long and honorably filled. 

Resolved, That we give our earnest assurance to his Excellency Andrew 
Johnson, President of the United States, that we will bring to his administra- 
tion the same hearty adherence and support as we have always borne to that 
of his predecessor. 

Resolved, That we wear the usual badge of mourning for the period of sixty 
days, and that we attend the funeral of our deceased President in a body. 

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be transmitted to the family of 
the late President, to the Secretary of State, and to his Excellency Andrew 
Johnson. 



In a proclamation appointing a day of prayer and humilia- 
tion, on account of the President's death, Governor Fen ton 
said : 



The fearful tragedy at Washington has converted an occasion of rejoicing 
over national victory into one of national mourning. It is fitting, therefore, 
that the 20th day of April, heretofore set apart as a day of thanksgiving, should 
now be dedicated to services appropriate to a season of national bereavement. 

Bowing reverently to the providence of God, let us assemble in our places of 
worship on that day, to acknowledge our dependence on Him who has brought 
sudden darkness on the land in the very hour of its restoration to Union, peace, 
and liberty. 



131 



NEW JERSEY. 



At a meeting of the citizens of New Jersey, held at the 
rooms of Col. Rafferty, Military State Agent, on Monday even- 
ing, the 17th of April, Hon. Edward Satter was appointed 
chairman, and Dr. A. P. Parton, secretary. Messrs. J. F. 
Burr and Isaac Hacker reported the following resolutions : 

Whorea?, in view of the dreadful calamity which has suddenly deprived the 
nation of its heloved President, Abraham Lincoln, while devoutly recognizing 
the hand of God, we bow in sorrow before His inscrutable dispensation : 

Resolved, That in his death the country has lost a true, just, and wise man; 
one possessing the loftiest patriotism and self-sacrificing devotion to the cause 
of human freedom, " with malice toward none, but charity for all." By calm 
and temperate judgment and intrepid devotion to duty he has carried our 
Union through the most horrible conflict with treason that the world has ever 
witnessed. The time had arrived when all men wore about to proclaim him 
the saviour of his country, when the hand of a cowardly fiend robbed earth and 
gave to heaven his sanctified spirit. 

liesolved, That to his family and immediate friends we extend our deepest 
sympathy, and we can well measure the depth of their sorrow by ours. 

Resolved, That, appreciating the services of Wm. H. Seward, as Secretary of 
State, with the highest regard for his wisdom and integrity, we pray that God 
may be pleased to spare his life; and we cordially sympathize with his family, 
and trust to rejoice with them by the speedy recovery of father and son. 

Resolved, That with the fullest confidence in the honesty and patriotism of 
Andrew Johnson, who suddenly has been called upon to assume the duties of 
Chief Magistrate, we pledge our cordial and fullest support in all efforts to com- 
plete the work of his immortal predecessor. 

Resolved, That we wear insignia of mourning, bearing the coat of arms of 
our State, for the period of sixty days. 

PENNSYLVANIA. 

A large meeting of citizens of Pennsylvania, then in the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, was held on Monday evening, April 17th, 
in the Hall of the Union League, for the purpose of giving ex- 
pression to their feelings upon the national bereavement that 
has befallen the country, in the death of Abraham Lincoln, late 
President of the United States. 

The meeting organized by appointing tlic Hon. Joseph Ca- 
sey, Chief Justice of the Court of Claims, president, and A. L. 
Henncrshotz, Esq., secretary. After an appropriate prayer by 



132 

the Rev. W. A. Cook, and an eloquent, impressive address by 
the presiding oflScer, on motion, Brigadier General James A. 
Ekin, Hon. John Covode, Hon. John Joseph Lewis, Hon. Ed- 
ward McPherson, Rev. W. A. Cook, John M. Sullivan, Esq., 
Hon. J. E. Brady, Major D. L. Eaton, and S. W. Pearson, Esq., 
were appointed a committee to prepare and report resolutions 
expressive of the sense of the meeting. The committee retired, 
and after a brief interval — during which the meeting was ad- 
dressed by Mr. Joseph J. Chase — reported, through their chair- 
man. Gen. Ekin, tlie following preamble and resolutions ; which 
were unanimously adopted : 

Whereas, by the cowardly act of an assassin, oar honored Chief Magistrate, 
Abraham Lincoln, was suddenly stricken down at a time when the auspicious 
results of his great and patriotic labors gave full assurance of the speedy down- 
fall of the rebellion, and of the immediate restoration of the national authority 
throughout the entire Union; and whereas, by this appalling national calamity, 
our beloved country has lost its first citizen, and our glorious Union its chief 
defender, while a whole nation is bowed down in grief unutterable ; and 
whereas, by his wise statesmanship, by his unfaltering devotion to the great 
cause of human liberty, by his ardent affection for the Union of the States, by 
the purity of his motives, and the kindness of his heart. President Lincoln 
commanded the respect, the love, and the admiration of the loyal people of 
America to a degree unequalled since the days of the illustrious AVashington ; 
and whereas we, citizens of Pennsylvania, and residents of the National Me- 
tropolis, are desirous to attest the profound sorrow which fills our hearts in the 
contemplation of this great public bereavement : therefore, be it 

Resolved, That in the death of his Excellency Abraham Lincoln, President 
of the United States, the nation mourns the loss of a wise statesman, a true pa- 
triot, and an honest man ; that his honored name will forever live in the affec- 
tions of loyal Pennsylvanians, as well as those of the whole loyal American 
people ; that none will shine brighter or purer in the annals of a nation which 
he successfully guided through the furious storms of a causeless and wicked re- 
bellion ; that in him we saw personified and illustrated the noble principles 
which have made Pennsylvania great and powerful ; great, because her corner- 
stone was laid in equity and justice toward all men; powerful, because labor 
has ever been her wealth, and through all her borders the laborer is held 
worthy of his hire. 

Resolved, That in this most terrible calamity we see but another illustration 
of the diabolical spirit of American slavery ; and in the sacrifice of him, our 
beloved friend, but the latest victim of that malignant hate which has made 
our land a house of mourning, swallowed up our substance, changed many fair 
fields into a wilderness, and written upon the pages of our historj'- a bloody 
and painful record of war and desolation without parallel in the book of time. 
Resolved, That we tender to the family of the distinguished deceased our 



133 

sincere condolence in this their hour of inexj^ressible anguish, invoking for 
them the kind and merciful dispensations of a beneficent Providence. 

Resolved, That we will attend in a body the funeral of the lamented deceased. 

Resolved, That our warmest sympathies are hereby tendered to the distin- 
guished citizens of our sister State of New York, the Hon. William H. Seward, 
Secretary of State, and also to his respected sou, the Hon. Frederick W. Seward, 
Assistant Secretary, in the great suffering which has befallen them, through the 
foul spirit of the assassin ; and we fervently express the hope that they may 
soon be restored to their country and their friends. 

Resolved, That we have an abiding confidence in the wisdom, patriotism, and 
firmness of President Andrew Johnson, and we promise to him the cordial sup- 
port of the loyal people of Pennsylvania in carrying out, to full completion, 
the noble work now so nearly finished— the re-establishment of the national 
authority in every State of the American Union; that his determination to visit 
with condign punishment the guilty authors and leaders of the rebellion meets 
with our unqualified approbation, and we promise to stand by the new President 
with the same devotion we extended to his illustrious predecessor. 

Resolved, That a certified copy of the foregoing preamble and resolutions be 
forwarded to the respected widow of the late President of the United States, to 
President Johnson, and to the Hon. Secretary of State. 

Resolved, That we will wear the usual badge of mourning for sixty days. 



OHIO. 



A meeting of Ohio citizens, in Washington city, was held at 
the oflSce of J. C. Wetmore, Esq., on Monday evening, the 17th 
of April, 1865, at which Hon. R,. C. Schenck was called to the 
chair, and Mr. Wetmore chosen secretary. After touching and 
appropriate remarks by the chairman, a committee, consisting 
of Hon. A. M. Gangewer ; Hon. E. Jordan, Solicitor of the 
Treasury ; Hon. A. G-. Riddle, Rev. B. F. Morris, Hon. Wm. 
Helmick, Hon. R. W. Tayler, and Rev. J. H. Bonte, was ap- 
pointed to prepare a series of resolutions. The following were 
presented and unanimously adopted : 

Resolved, That, in common with the loyal people of tne entire country, we 
mourn the loss of the President of the Republic, Abraham Lincoln. Wise, 
patriotic, and good, he was honored, trusted, and loved to a degree seldom if 
ever surpassed ; the friend of the people, the protector of the oppressed, and the 
saviour of his country, all will unite to weep his fall. Called to act the first 
part in the grandest drama of time, and having acted it so nobly, his fame will 
grow brighter as advancing ages shall set in bolder relief his illustrious virtues. 
Falling at the post of duty, a martyr to his love of country and of right, and 
to his hatred of treason and oppression, his death will secure the great objects 



134 

to which his life was devoted — the unity and peace of his country, and the 
freedom and happiness of all his countrymen. 

Resolved, That we tender our most heartfelt condolence to the stricken 
family of the illustrious deceased. 

Resolved, That, in the assassination of the President, we perceive an appal- 
ling exhibition of the brutalizing and relentless spirit engendered by slavery, 
and a fresh proof that there can be no safety to the country until that spirit 
shall be completely crushed; an end which, in our opinion, can only be attain-ed 
by the entire extinction of slavery itself, and the adequate punishment of 
those who, at its bidding, have committed deliberate treason, and plunged the 
nation into war. 

Resolved, That, far from being disheartened by the dreadful calamity which 
has befallen the nation, we are but aroused by it to a sterner resolve that our 
Government shall be sustained, that order shall be preserved, that the Union 
shall be maintained, that all its enemies shall be subdued and punished, and 
that the peace, prosperity, and happiness of the nation shall be secured. 

Resolved, That, to secure these ends, with entire confidence in the wisdom, 
integrity, and patriotism of Andrew Johnson, we pledge to him our earnest 
and unreserved support of his administration : sprung, like his great predeces- 
sor, from the midst of the people, we are sure that the interests of the people 
will be safe in his hands. 

J. M. McGrew and H. M, Sla-de were appointed marshals. 

Governor Brough, in liis proclamation for a day of prayer 
and humiliation, in view of the affliction of Divine Providence 
upon tlie nation, recommends the day to be observed "as a Sab- 
bath of the nation ; that all our people unite, not only in 
humiliation before the Lord, and contemplation of the services 
and virtues of the great and good man who has been taken 
away from us, but in earnest prayer that Almighty God will 
sanctify this great affliction to us as a nation and a people; that 
in His wise providence He will rule all these things for our 
good, and that He will strengthen and guide our present rulers, 
and endow them with wisdom to conduct the nation to peace 
and unity again.'* 

INDIANA. 

At a meeting of the citizens of Indiana, temporarily resident 
in Washington, and others visiting tlie capital of the nation, 
Hon. John P. Usher was chosen chairman, and D. P. Hollo- 
way, secretary. 

The chairman briefly announced the object of the meeting, 



135 

and most feelingly alluded to the life and character of our late 
Chief Magistrate. 

Hon. W. T. Otto offered the following resolutions, which 
were unanimously adopted: 

Whereas Abraham Lincoln was especially dear to the people of Indiana, 
whore he spent the greater part of his boyish and youthful days, and where the 
remains of his honored mother rest, it is deemed fit that we, the citizens of In- 
diana now in Washington, shall in some appropriate form contribute our offer- 
ing of veneration to his memory ; therefore, 

Resolved, That we regard the death of the late President of the United States 
as one of the severest chastisements which has been inflicted ujton our country. 
In this calamity we recognize the hand of the Great Chastiser, and reverently, 
but with hearts full of sorrow, submit to His infallible and righteous decrees. 

Resolved, That the exalted public and private character of the late President, 
his freedom from selfish ambition, his fear of God, his love of country, his devo- 
tion to the duties of the high trusts confided to him in this arduous crisis, the 
patience, forecast, unsurpassed wisdom, and magnanimity which he evinced in 
the discharge of them, will cause his memory to be cherished with love and 
reverence by all loyal Americans until the end of time. 

Resolved, That the chairman of this meeting be requested to transmit a copy 
of the foregoing resolutions to the bereaved family of the late President, with 
the assurance of the profound sympathy of the people of Indiana, in the recent 
afflictive dispensation of Providence. 

The following request to the citizens of Indiana was issued 
by Governor Morton : 

State of Indiana, ExECUTrvE Department, 

Indianapolis, April 15, 1865. 
To the Citizens of Indiana: 

The mournful intelligence has been received that the President, Abraham 
Lincoln, died this morning, from a wound inflicted by the hands of an assassin 
last night. A great and good man has fallen, and the country has lost its 
beloved and patriotic Chief Magistrate, in the hour of her greatest need. I 
therefore request the citizens of Indianapolis, in testimony of their profound 
sorrow, to close their places of business and assemble in the State House Square 
at 12 o'clock, noon, to-day, to give expression to their sentiments over this great 
national calamity. 

J. P. MORTON, 
Oovernor of Indiana. 

ILLINOIS. 

The citizens of Illinois met 17th April at the National Ho- 
tel, for the further consideration of arrangements appertain- 
ing to the funeral of the President of the United States. 



136 

Governor Yates, chairman, stated tliat it would be in order 
for the several committees to report, if prepared to do so. 

General Isham N. Haynie, from the committee upon resolu- 
tions, submitted the followin^^ preamble and resolutions for 
consideration, which were adopted by the meeting : 

Whereas the nation has been called by the mysterious decree of an over- 
ruling Providence to mourn the loss of the first magistrate of the republic, at 
a period when the best and brightest hopes of the people were centred upon 
him, and at the moment when his long and faithful services had culminated in 
complete triumph ; and whereas we, the citizens of Illinois, his former friends 
and neighbors, present in the city of Washington, profoundly impressed with 
this irreparable loss to us, to the State of Illinois, to the nation, and to the 
world, desire to render just tribute to his great qualities and services ; there- 
fore, 

•Resolved, That we deplore, with inexpressible sorrow and anguish, this great 
calamity, which has, at the same moment, robbed us of the kindest and truest 
friend, our gi-eat State of its greatest citizen, the republic of its beloved and hon- 
ored Chief Magistrate, the world of one of the ablest advocates of humanity 
and brightest ornaments of the age — to whose memory, virtues, and great qual- 
ities eulogy can never do more than justice. 

Resolved, That we tender to the family of the deceased President our sympa- 
thy and kindest condolence in this their hour of greatest sorrow and deepest 
gloom ; and while we fully realize that all must bow in humble submission to 
this overwhelming dispensation, yet we trust that they (like the great nation 
that delights to honor the memory of the illustrious dead) may find consolation 
in the realization that this great sacrifice will more sacredly consecrate the 
cause to which he was devoted, securing to his name imperishable renown, to 
his countrymen perpetual liberty, and to his country perpetual unity. 

Resolved, That our thanks are due, and are hereby heartily tendered, to the 
Federal authorities for their cordial co-operation and concurrence with the citi- 
zens of Illinois in securing to that State the remains of the citizen she delighted 
to honor and the President she gave to the nation; and that we will receive as 
a sacred trust all that is left of the iilustrious dead, to be deposited among the 
people who first learned to love him because they knew him to be great in 
goodness and good in greatness. 

Resolved, That we unite in tendering to the Honorable William 11. Seward 
our heartfelt sj^mpathy for his affliction, and profound thankfulness to God for 
his escape from the assassin's knife, and we trust he may speedily be restored 
to health ami tlie discharge of his high duties to the republic. 

Resolved, That copies of these resolutions and the proceedings of this meet- 
ing be made and delivered to Mrs. Lincoln, and the public press of tlie city, 
and their publication requested. 

Resolved, by Ihe citizens of Illinois here assemhlcd, Tliat we deem it proper 
and just to the Slate of Illinois that the remains of Abrahaia Lincoln, late 
President of the United Stales, now deceased, shall be interred at the capital 



137 

of the State so long his residence; and that the committee appointed by this 
meeting to wait upon his family and relatives be respectfully requested to pre- 
sent this resolution to them, and request their concurrence therein. 

Upon motion of Hon. 0. H. Browning, it was 

Resolved, That in addition to the usual mourning badge of crape worn upou 
the arm, the citizens of Illinois adopt full mourning by wearing crape upon 
their hats for the term of sixty days. 

KENTUCKY. 

The citizens of Kentucky in Washington assembled at Wil- 
lards' Hotel, April 16, 1865, and organized by appointing the 
Hon. Green Clay Smith, president, and James Miller, Esq., 
secretary. 

On motion, it was voted to appoint a committee of five on 
resolutions. 

The Rev. Dr. Robert McMurdy, Col. A. H. Marldand, Col. 
C. D. Pennebaker, Captain J. P. Martin, and Dr. N. S. Moore 
were appointed said committee. 

The Rev. Dr. McMurdy, chairman of the committee, reported 
the following resolutions ; which were unanimously adopted : 

Rc&olved, That, in common with the whole country, we deplore the calamity 
which has deprived the nation of its eminently wise, kind, and judicious head. 
As Kentuckians we feel deeply the loss to our citizens of one who, born on their 
soil, acquainted with their people, sympathizing with the embarrassments, an- 
noyances, and sufferings of the loyal community, was eminently fitted to tem- 
per severity with mercy; and while administering the laws so as to secure their 
supremacy, yet could win the erring as a kind and patient father. No com- 
monwealth will so sadly feel this afflictive dispensation as that of Kentuck}^ 

Resolved, That we heartily condole with Airs. Lincoln, and her household, in 
their affliction and grief, assuring the esteemed wife of our late honored Presi- 
dent (like him, a native of Kentucky) of our sympathy, and that of every loyal 
Kentuckian. We pray that she may he endued with patience in her distress, 
and with resignation to God's blessed will, and be comforted with a sense of 
his goodness ; and feeling that, as he gave his mind and heart to liis country, 
so also shall his very life be given up, if thereby liberty and union may be pre- 
served, and these blessings handed down to posterity, his name being chief in 
the patriotic martyrology of our country. 

IOWA. 

At a meeting of the citizens of Iowa, in the pu1)lic parlor of 
the National Hotel, on the loth April, for expression of their 



138 

sorrow in view of the death of the Chief Magistrate of the na- 
tion, Governor Stone presided, and a committee, appointed to 
prepare resolutions expressive of the sense of tlie meeting, re- 
ported the following, which were unanimously adopted : 

Whereas in this hour of national grief, while the country mourns the loss of 
her honored and loved Chief Magistrate, it becomes us, citizens of the State of 
Iowa, to express our sorrow at this sad and irreparable calamity : therefore. 

Resolved, That as a tribute to the memory of Abraham Lincoln, and as a fit- 
ting expression of the sense of this meeting, the following proclamation of his 
excellency the Governor of Iowa, meeting with our unqualified endorsement 
and approval, be embodied in these resolutions : 

Washington City, April 15, 1865. 
To the Feople of Iowa : 

The Federal city is shrouded in mourning. In the midst of joy and triumph 
the nation is suddenly called to deplore the loss of its greatest and truest friend, 
foully murdered by a traitor hand. Stricken down in the fulness of life, and 
when strongest in the hearts of the people, Abraham Lincoln, President of the 
United States, an honest man, an excellent patriot, the friend of the poor and 
the oppressed, the deliverer of his country, has been gathered to a martyr's grave. 

That the people of Iowa who admired and loved the fallen patriot, and so 
nobly sustained the holy cause he represented, may appropriately testify their 
sorrow over this national calamity, I invite them to assemble in their respective 
places of worship on Thursday, the 27th day of April, at 10 o'clock A. \l., for 
humiliation and prayer to Almighty God. And I request that travel within 
the State and all other secular employment be totally suspended on that day, 
and that all public ofiices be draped in mourning for the period of thirty days. 

W. M. STONE, 

Governor. 

Resolved, That while a nation mourns the death of its Chief Executive, the 
oppressed their deliverer, and the friends of humanity everywhere their advocate, 
yet his family mourns a husband and a father, and to them in this hour of deep 
af&iction we tender our heartfelt sympathies and condolence. 

Resolved, That we extend to the Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, 
our earnest sympathies, and our hopes that he and the members of his family 
may speedily be restored to health and usefulness. 

Resolved. That in the patriotism, wisdom, and integrity of his Excellency, 
Andrew Johnson, who has so suddenly and unexpectedly been called to admin- 
ister the afi'airs of the nation, we have implicit confidence, and we pledge 
him our earnest and unswerving support. 

WISCONSIN. 

At an informal meeting of the citizens of the State of "Wis- 
consin, in Washington city, held Tuesday evening, April 18, at 



139 

the rooms of tlic Wisconsin State Agency, for the purpose of 
expressing- their profound sorrow for tlie national cahunity that 
has betallen us as a people in the death of our lamented Chief 
Magistrate, Abraham Lincoln, the assemblage was called to 
order by tlie Hon. Bradford Rixford. Brigadier General E. S. 
Bragg was nominated chairman, and S. Cadwallader appointed 
secretary. 

At the request of the Chairman, Hon. A. "W. Randall stated 
the object of the meeting to be the expression of individual, 
State, and national grief in the loss of its late President, and 
proceeded to pay a handsome and well-deserved tribute to his 
memory as a man and a statesman. It became us to bow sub- 
missively to the decrees of an all-wise providence, and to 
believe that the nation's apparent loss was its real and substan- 
tial gain. He concluded by moving that a committee of seven, 
witli Hon. 0. H. Waldo, of Milwaukie, as chairman, be ap- 
pointed to draft resolutions expressing the sense of the meeting ; 
which was adopted. 

The Chair then named the following gentlemen the commit- 
tee : Hon. 0. H. Waldo, of Milwaukie. chairman ; Ex-Gov. 
A. W. Randall, Hon. Bradford Rixford, Hon. Alex. T. Gray, 
Captain R. H. Chandler, Colonel R. M. Murphy, and Hon. 
W^illiam H. Watson. 

After a short absence, the committee reported the following 
resolutions, wiiich were unanimously adopted : 

Resolved, That as we bow beneath the v/eight of the sudden and appalling 
affliction that hath fallen upon the nation, in the death, at the hand of the 
assassin, of our honored and beloved President, we would, at the same time, 
recognize in this chastisement the inscrutable and all-wise providence of the 
Heavenly Father, who doth not willingly afflict. 

Resolved, That while we cannot refrain from mourning over that which, to 
us, seems our irreparable loss, we will not forget to render thanks to God — thg 
great Giver — that in the hour of llie nation's extremest need He gave us, in 
the person of Abraham Lincoln, a leader and chief endowed v/ith such gentle 
and noble gifts ; with such prudence and practical wisdom ; such fidelity, and 
such earnest, patriotic devotion, coupled with such simple, transparent sincerity; 
such high sense of justice and truth, and such steadfastness and courage, coupled 
with such gentleness, forbearance, and mercy to all ; a man never cast down or 
dismayed in the hour of threatened disaster and defeat, and never exultant or 
boastful in the hour of victory ; a man who, assuming the reins of government 
at his first inauguration at a period of deepest gloom, when traitors were trium- 



140 

pbant, and there was present no visible hand to help, yet stood firm and yielded 
no whit of the nation's honor or the nation's right; and who, at his second 
inauguration, after four years of dreadful struggle, and in view of the moment 
of final and glorious triumph, indulged in no boast, but in the presence of tho 
throng of assembled freemen was content to utter the gentle and heartfelt 
appeal, " With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the 
right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are 
in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the 
battle, and for iiis widow and orphan ; to do all which may achieve and cherish 
a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations;" for such a man 
at such a. time we thank God. 

Resolved, That we sincerely condole with the bereaved wife and children of 
the deceased President, and we fervently trust and pray that He — the all- 
wise — who hath first blest them with, and hath now bereft them of so gentle 
and noble a husband and father, will heal their wounds, and guide and shield 
them through many years of peace and happiness, in the shadow of the great 
and beloved name of the earthly protector whom they have lost. 

Resolved, That we are not unmindful of the weight of the burden of respon- 
sibility and care so suddenly cast upon him who succeeds to the high trust until 
now held by the deceased President; and while we grieve at our present bereave- 
ment we cannot but regard it as a new proof of the Divine favor, that he who 
so unexpectedly enters upon the duties of that trust has given such ground of 
confidence in his fidelity, ability, and patriotism, and that we are so fully 
assured that he will receive the cordial, earnest, and undivided support of all 
good men and of all patriots. 

KANSAS. 

At a meeting of the citizens of Kansas in Washington city, 
held at the rooms of the Hon. Sidney Clarke, April 17, 1865, 
Hon. Sidney Clarke was chosen chairman, and H. C. Fields, 
Esq., secretary. 

The following was adopted as expressing the sentiments of 
the meeting : 

An appalling national calamity has occurred. The country is overwhelmed 
•with profound grief. The first citizen of the E-epublic, its constitutional and 
beloved Chief JMagistrate, has been assassinated by the spirit of the slavehold- 
ers' rebellion. Abraham Lincoln was the friend of Union and liberty when 
slavery first developed its treason on the soil of Kansas. He has been doubly 
true in the great crisis of the nation, and he died for the Union, for liberty, for 
mankind. 

We, the citizens of Kansas, now in Washington, representing the united 
voice of our State, mourn his irreparable loss, and bow in reverential submis- 
sion to this inscrutable providence of Almighty God. 

We pledge anew our devotion to the country and to freedom, and will never 



141 

cease our efforts till the conspirators against the national life are visited with 
that condign punishment which justice demands. 

MISSOURI. 

At a, mectinti- of loyul Missourians hold to express their sen- 
timents on the death of President Lincoln, Edinnnd Flagg was 
called to the chair, and IT, Jones appointed secretary. 

A. W. Scharit, G. W. McKean, and E. W. Wallace, as a 
committee for that purpose, reported the following resolutions, 
which were unanimously adopted : 

Resolved, That with all good and loyal men of this nation, and friends of 
freedom throughout the world, we would join in sorrow and lamentations at 
the, to us, untimely death of our beloved Chief Magistrate, Abraham Lincoln, 
and tender to his bereaved family our most sincere sympathy and condolence. 

Resolved, That in token of our profound respect we will wear the usual badge 
of mourning for sixty days, and attend the public obsequies with the respective 
departments with which we are attached, or in company with such other organ- 
izations as we may severally deem most proper. 

Resolved, That in the wisdom and patriotism of Andrew Johnson, who has 
by an inscrutable Providence been called to guide and govern this nation at 
the present crisis, we have entire confidence, and accept his record in the past 
as an assurance for the future, and we cordially tender him our earnest support. 

MEETING OF CITIZENS FROM THE PACIFIC COAST. 

The citizens from the Pacific coast met at Senator Nye's 
room, at Willards' Hotel, on the 18th of April, at eleven o'clock 
A. M. 

On motion of Senator Nye, Senator McDougall was called 
to the chair, and A. G. Henry appointed secretary. 

Senator Williams, of Oregon ; Senator Stewart, of Nevada ; 
A. G. Henry, of Washington Territory ; Hon. Thompson Camp- 
bell, of California ; and the Hon. Wm. H. Wallace, of Idaho 
Territory, were appointed a committee to report resolutions 
expressive of the sense of the meeting. On motion, the Chair- 
man was added to the committee. After retiring for a few 
moments, they returned and reported the following, by their 
chairman, Senator Williams, which were unanimously adopted : 

Resolved, That words are too feeble to express our horror and indignation at 
the unparalleled and atrocious criraes committed in this city, on the 14th inst., 



142 

by the murderous assault upon the Secretary of State, and the assassination of 
tlie Chief Magistrate of the nation. 

Resolved, That while we mourn the untimely loss of President Lincoln, we 
also rejoice and thank God for the recent great and decisive victories of our na- 
tional arms, and hope and trust that these victories will be so used and im- 
proved that the infernal spirit that has characterized the present slaveholders' 
rebellion — a spirit that results in the starvation of prisoners of war in loath- 
some dungeons ; that seeks the indiscriminate slaughter of men, women, and 
children by arson ; that has imbrued its hands in the blood of an aged 
and venerated citizen and officer of the Republic while prostrate and helpless 
on a bed of sickness ; that has murdered the head of the nation, by shooting 
him in the most brutal and cowardly manner in the back ; that this fiendish 
spirit may be effectually and forever crushed, and a proper respect for labor, 
law, and justice be restored to the country. 

Besolved, That when we see acts of magnanimity and mercy requited by 
deeds of blood and violence, we are forcibly reminded of the value of that stern 
and inflexible justice which prompted a Roman father to condemn his own son 
to death for violating the laws of his country. 

Besolved, That President Lincoln, by his private virtues, his unsullied pa- 
triotism, his wise and successful statesmanship, has enshrined his memory in the 
hearts of the American people, and that his name will be deservedly inscribed 
upon the highest pinnacle of our country's fame, within the very halo of glory 
that surrounds the name of Washington. 

Besolved, That confiding in the patriotism and capacity of President John- 
Bon, we pledge " our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honors" to sustain his 
administration to the entire and perfect completion of that work which has been 
consecrated by the labors and blood of Abraham Lincoln and the other mar- 
tyred dead of this war. 

Besolved, That a copy of these resolutions be presented to the bereaved and 
afflicted family of our late lamented President, to whom we tender our heartfelt 
sympathies, and commend them to the kind offices of the nation, and the pro- 
tecting care of the God of the widow and the fatherless. 



iN CALIFORNIA. 



San Feakcisco, 
Thursday, April 20, 1865. 
The funeral services in honor of the late President in this city yesterday were 
the grandest ever witnessed on the Pacific coast. The procession, three miles 
long, contained 15,000 people. Business was entirely suspended. Every house 
was draped with emblems of mourning. The utmost quiet and decorum pre- 
vailed. 

The obsequies were observed in every town in the State, and in the princpal 
towns in Nevada. 



143 



IN DENVER, COLORADO. 

Denver, Wednesday, April 19, 1865. 

Since the death of President Lincoln all business in the city has been sus- 
pended. Public buildings, stores, and private residences are all draped in ap- 
propriate emblems of mourning. 

The funeral ceremonies to-day were attended by a larger concourse of people 
that ever before assembled here. The military and civil officers of the Govern- 
ment and Territory, together with all the religious orders, were fully reore- 
Beuted. 



TRIBUTES OF THE COURTS AND CIVIC 
BODIES. 



THE UNITED STATES COURT OP CLAIMS. 

The death of President Lincoln was announced on the 15th 
of May, by Mr. Weed, the Assistant Solicitor, in the following 
terms : 

May it please your honors: Since this court adjourned in March last, and 
ordered a recess until the present time, an event has occurred which has clad 
the whole land in mourning, and to-day we weep at the tomb of him upon 
whom the people had a second time constitutionally conferred the highest oiBce 
in their gift. To-day, all that was earthly of Abraham Lincoln, aftci having 
been borne nearly across the continent, followed by the nation in sadness and 
grief, is to be committed to its final resting-place in that State whose idol he 
was, and who gave him to the nation, that Union, in that divine purpose and 
spirit in which it came to us from our fathers, might be saved. It is meet that, 
when the nation is in mourning, the busy pursuits of men be laid aside. Even 
justice may wait another day. When a great sorrow smites a man, the world 
goes on in the old way, heedless of his pain ; but to-day the nation is smitten, 
and there is mourning everywhere. Not only here, but reaching across the 
continent, you find everywhere its fitting emblems, speaking more eloquently 
than words of the deep personal and public grief of a whole people. What 
can I say of this great and good man ? He has no need of eulogy, for his deeda 
will speak of his wisdom, his purity, and his greatness, long after those who 
loved him so well shall speak of him to-day. 

I chanced to be standing beside our lamented President when he made his 
farewell speech to his old friends and neighbors who had gathered to speak 
some kindly words of confidence and hope to him, upon his departure from 
among them to assume the duties of the office to which he had been summoned 
by the pjeople. Speaking with unusual impressiveness, he said: "To-day I leave 
you ; for how long I know not. I go to assume responsibilities greater than 
ever Washington knew, and unless the same Almighty arm that guided and 
10 145 



146 

protected him shall sustain and direct me, I must fail ! " We all know with 
what sublime faith and reverent trust he held fast to Him whose guidance he 
had invoked, and bravely he bore us in perfect triumph through three dark and 
terrible years of desolation and war, out in the calm sunlight of returning 
peace. We know when he was reviled and traduced he reviled not again, but 
quietly trusted in God. In the old Egyptian State, when a ruler died, procla- 
mation was made, and if he had done any wrong thing, and it could be proven 
against him, he was denied the honorable burial. I would trust Abraham Lin- 
coln to that test to-day. I would defy any man, living or dead, to prove that 
he committed any sin. I may say of him what the world will say of him, that 
he was a pure and good man, and that neither in his public nor private life did 
he knowingly do any wrong. 

As a lawyer Mr. Lincoln was entitled to no medium place. He breught to 
the labors of that profession but little of the culture of the schools ; he brought 
rather that acuteness of intellect, that' earnestness, that power of comprehend- 
ing great principles, and of stating them logically and briefly, which seemed a 
part of his nature. In his argument of legal questions he was always concise 
and clear in his statements, using no useless or unmeaning words. He went 
directly to the question involved, and brought to its discussion the same practical 
common sense for which, as President, he became so distinguished. As an 
advocate he possessed characteristics which at once placed him at the head ol 
the profession in his own State. How eloquent he was, only those who have 
listened to his appeals in behalf of the oppressed can tell. His was the elo- 
quence which comes from earnestness, from sincerity, and from an honesty of 
purpose. No man in Illinois was more a favorite with the bar than he ; none 
mourn his loss with deeper grief than those who knew him intimately and 
well in their every-day association with him, and the earnest labors of his 
profession. 

To-day a grateful but mournful people will lay him tenderly in the bosom 
of his adopted State, remembering that he was faithless to no trust, false to no 
principle : and future generations will say of him, that he was unselfish and 
pure even as Washington was. What need they say more than that ? 

As a fitting indication of our sense of the great loss the country has sustained, 
I therefore move that this court adjourn until the first Monday in October 
next. 

Chief Justice Casey responded as follows : 

The death of our honored and beloved Chief Magistrate, by the hands of trea- 
son and violence, has profoundly affected and stirred the minds and feelings of 
all loyal persons in this country, and of Christian people throughout the world. 
No man ever more fully possessed the hearts and affections of this nation. 
Sprung from the ranks of the people, he thoroughly understood and sympa- 
thized with them, and they accorded him not only their fullest confidence, but 
their warmest love. 

Looking back over the vicissitudes and perils of the past four years, every 
patriotic heart is filled with gratitude to the Giver of all g'^od, for having 



147 

raised up and placed in power so groat and good a man as Abraham Lincoln, 
at such a crisis. A man so pure and unselfish in his purposes, so sagacious 
and wise in his plans, so firm and determined in the right, so lofty in his pa- 
triotism, so kind and forgiving in his temper, so generous and magnanimous 
in his disposition, so entirely devoted to the cause of the Union and the inter- 
ests of freedom. Ho lived long enough to see, as the fruits of his great labors, 
and of his unfaltering faith in God's providence and the triumph of the right, 
the most wicked and gigantic rebellion the world ever saw effectually crashed, 
and the bright dawn of an effulgent future for the country and institutions he 
served so faithfully and loved so well, and the complete enfranchisement of 
a degraded and enslaved race. 

In the accomplishment of such great objects, the measure of his fame, as a 
great and enlightened Christian statesman, was full and complete ; and it 
needed but to invest his memory with the sacredness of martyrdom to enshrine 
him in the hearts of all good men, everywhere, in all coming time. • 

That one so good and great should have belonged to and illustrated by his 
talents o.nd adorned by his high virtues the profession to which we belong is 
matter of just pride to every lawyer and judicial functionary in the nation, 
and is a high tribute to the profession which can produce and foster such high 
moral and intellectual excellence. 

We direct these proceedings to be entered upon our minutes, and, as a fur- 
ther mark of our profound respect for his memory, and unaffected sorrow for 
his death, this court will now adjourn. 

Ordered, That the court be adjourned to Tuesday, the second day of October 
next, at 12 o'clock, M. 

EXPRESSIONS OF SORROW BY THE LEVY COURT OF THE COUNTY 
OF WASHINGTON. 

Levy Court of Wasjungton Cotjnty, 
April 17, 1865. 

At a meeting of this court, held this day, the following reso- 
lutions wore adopted : 

On behalf of the people of the District of Columbia, outside of the cities of 
Washington and Georgetown, this court mingles with the wailing voice of the 
nation its expression of profound sorrow for the death, by the hand of an as- 
sassin, of the President of the United States, whose wisdom and moderation 
have won the admiration of the civilized world ; whose humanity, Christian 
meekness, entire reliance upon the Great Ruler of the Universe ; whose ardent 
love of his country and unwearied labor in the public service, have enshrined 
him in the hearts of the American people, and whose successful pilotage of the 
nation through scenes and difficulties the most trying has made him illustrious. 

While we mourn the loss of the " Preserver of the Union," we thank God 
that he was raised up for the great work he has so well performed, and that he 
was permitted to behold the breaking up of the rebellion, the restoration of 



148 

the stars and stripes over all the national forts from which it was torn down 
by the hands of traitors four years ago, and the coming of that glorious day 
that is to witness the whole American people again united under the folds of 
the time-honored "flag of the free." 

Resolved, That we will, in a body, with the officers of this court, join in the 
ceremony of paying funeral honors to the deceased, and will wear crape on the 
left arm for thirty days. 

Resolved, That we tender the condolences of sorrowful hearts to the family 
of the deceased, and that a copy of these resolutions be transmitted to them. 

Resolved, Tliat in the preservation of the life of our beloved and honored 
statesman, the Secretary of State, from the efforts of the base assassin, we recog- 
nize the hand of Providence, and we tender to him and his distressed family 
our heartfelt sympathy, and hope that he and they may be speedily restored to 
health, and that his valuable services to the nation may be continued. 

Resolved, That we sympathize with the President, Hon. Andrew Johnson, 
upon the sudden necessity of his assuming the responsible duties assigned him 
by the American people and the Constitution in this great emergency, and 
assure him of our generous and unqualified support in his new and trying posi- 
tion. 

N. SARGENT, 

President of the Levy Court. 
Teste : 

Nicholas Callan, Clerk. 

MEETING OF THE BAR AND OF THE GRAND JURY. 

The members of the bar and of the grand jury met in the 
Criminal Court room, City Hall. 

On motion, Hon. Justice Andrew Wylie, of the Supreme 
Court of the District, presided, and Mr. E. J. Middleton, clerk 
of the court, was appointed secretary. 

A committee, consisting of E. C. Carrington, Esq., Jos. H. 
Bradley, Esq., and Philip R. Fendall, Esq., on the part of the 
bar, and Messrs. George A. Bohrer, James Y. Davis, and 
Henry Barron, on the part of the grand jury, were appointed 
to draft suitable resolutions. The committee retired, and sub- 
sequently appeared, and through their chairman, Mr. Carring- 
ton, reported the following preamble and resolutions : 

A heavy pall overhangs the land, and all hearts are united in the holy 
brotherhood of sorrow. The President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, 
is dead — stricken down, not by accident or disease, but by an awful crime that 
has no parallel in the annals of the country. 

Whilst the death of the Chief Magistrate is always a public calamity, on this 
occasion the nation mourns the irreparable loss of one whose labors, rendered 



149 

illustrious in war, were about to be crowned by the glory of diffusing the 
blessed rays of peace over a reunited land. Adding our voices to the wail of 
lamentation that swells from the nation, without distinction of class or party, 
and with profound abhorrence of the atrocious deed, and a deep sense of shame 
for the stain upon the American character and name : therefore, 
Be it resolved by this meeting, 

1. That we will in a body join in the ceremony of paying funeral honors to 
the deceased, and will wear the usual emblem of mourning for sixty days. 

2. That we tender an assurance of respectful and heartfelt sympathy to the 
family of the deceased. 

3. That on this solemn occasion we renew our pledge of devotion to the 
cause of our country, to which the best energies of our martyred President were 
devoted during his eventful and trying administration, humbly invoking the 
blessing of Almighty God. 

CITY COUNCIL OP WASHINGTON, D. C. 

]\Iayor's Office, April 15, 1865. 
To the Boards of Aldermen and Common Council: 

Gentlejien : The moment of our country's greatest glory and joy has most 
Buddenly alternated into its hour of saddest sorrow. The nation's greatest and 
best citizen fell by the hands of an assassin at Ford's Theatre, in this city, about 
the hour of 10 o'clock last night. 

I have summoned you together to give shape and expression to the irrcpres- 
Bible grief of this community, and adopt measures befitting an event which 
will fill the world with horror and gloom. 

RICHARD WALLACH, 

Mayor. 

Mr. Utermehle then moved tlie appointment of a committee 
of seven — three from the Board of Aldermen and four from the 
lower Board — to draft resolutions suitable to the melancholy 
occasion ; which was adopted ; and Messrs. Utermehle, Lloyd, 
and Barr were appointed on the part of the Board. 

The committee retired, and after conference with the com- 
mittee on the part of the Common Council, reported the fol- 
lowing preamble and resolutions ; which were unanimously 
adopted : 

Whereas our late President, Abraham Lincoln, has fallen beneath the blow ot 
a cowardly assassin, stricken down at a period when his magnanimity and exalted 
statesmanship had raised the country from the depression caused by four years 
of bloody war to a period from which the smiling path of peace and plenty 
was clearly brought to view. He has fallen, and the tears of millions of free- 
bora Americans water his grave. And while the wail of desolation goes up 



150 

from all quarters of our land, we, the people of the city of Washington, who 
know best his many virtues, private as well as public, would indicate the high 
esteem in which they have ever held him, the deep regret which they feel for 
his irreparable loss, and the horror and detestation entertained by them for the 
instigators of his death. Of him truly it may be said that in his death the mis- 
guided people of the South have lost their best friend, the American Union its 
firmest supporter, and liberty its most undaunted champion : therefore, be it 

Resolved, That in the death of Abraham Lincoln, the country has lost a great 
and good man, one prompted by the purest and best motives, one ever solicit- 
ous for the best interest of the whole American people, and whose whole life 
has been enlisted in the cause of liberty and union. 

Resolved, That while words but feebly express our deep sorrow, we tender to 
the American nation and his grief-stricken family our sympathy in this their 
hour of great bereavement, and we pray Almight;iyr God to avert from this tia- 
tion further calamity, and to sustain and comfort the sorrowing widow and fa- 
therless children. 

Resolved, That the Mayor be, and he is hereby, requested to cause the build- 
ings of the Corporation and the chambers of the two Boards to be draped in 
mourning for the period of sixty days ; and further, as an additional mark of 
our respect, the members of the two Boards wear the usual badge of mourning 
for the like period. 

Resolved, That the corporate authorities will attend the funeral obsequies in 
a body; and that the citizens of Washington be, and they are hereby, requested 
to close their usual places of business on the day of the funeral, and to unite 
with us in this last mark of esteem and sympathy ; and that a joint committee 
of seven — three members of the Board of Aldermen and four members of the 
board of Common Council — be appointed to make the necessary arrangements. 

Resolved, That the Mayor be, and he is hereby, requested to transmit a copy 
of these resolutions to the family of our late President. 

CITY COUNCIL OF GEORGETOWN. 

Mayor's Office, Georgetown, D. C, 

April 17, 1865. 
Gentlemen: You have been assembled to consider the great national ca- 
lamity which has been brought down upon us by the assassination of Abraham 
Lincoln, President of the United States, and to express yourselves in such a 
manner as may seem to you to become the sad occasion. 

HENRY ADDISON, Mayor. 

Resolved, hy the Board of Aldermen and Board of Common Couneil of 
Georgetown, That we have received with a sensation of profound horror the 
intelligence of the assassination of the President of the United States, and of 
the dastardly attack upon the Secretary of State. 

That whether regard be had to the lofty station of the victim or his personal 
character and virtues, the crime is to be reprobated as one unparalleled for 
enormity in the history and traditions of the republic, and is one which shocks 



151 

the enlightened spirit of the age, and merits the unqualified execration of all 
mankind. 

That in the death of President Lincoln we deplore the loss of a great and 
good man, a wise, upright, and magnanimous ruler, whose life, by the common 
consent of his adherents and opponents, was, at this crisis, of inestimable value 
to bis country ; whose far-reaching statesmanship, proverbial gentleness of 
heart, and disposition to temper justice with mercy, afforded the surest pledge 
of the speedy extinction of the rebellion, the honorable pacification of our 
country, and the restoration of fraternal relations with our erring brethren of 
the South. 

That we tender our heartfelt sympathy to his bereaved family, and in testi- 
mony of our sense of the national bereavement, the public offices and schools 
of the town be draped in mourning, and the members and officers of the Cor- 
poration will attend the funeral of the President in a body, and will wear crape 
on the left arm for thirty days. 

That our heartfelt sympathy and support are eminently due, and are hereby 
tendered, to our present Chief Magistrate, Andrew Johnson, in his sudden call 
to the discharge of the high and important duties of his office ; and we hereby 
tender to him the expression of our confidence in his ability to discharge them, 
under God, to the best interests of the American people. 



MEETING OP THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC ASSOCIATION. 

The president, the Hon. Charles Mason, called the meeting 
to order. On motion of Hon. Thomas B. Florence, a commit- 
tee of five was chosen to draft resolutions, viz : F. A. Aiken, 
John W. Clampitt, D. C. Laurence, W. J. Miller, and Dr. 
Charles Allen. The following resolutions were presented and 
adopted : 

Resolved, hy the National Democratic Association of Washington, D. C, 
That, as a body, we desire to express our profound, sincere, and heartfelt sor- 
row for the national loss which we, in common with our fellow countrymen, 
have met in the death of President Lincoln, by the hand of an assassin. 

Resolved, That the affections of the American people were fast centring 
around President Lincoln as an exemplar of an enlarged humanity, and one 
whose conciliating and patriotic efforts in the administration of public affairs 
were about to culminate in the restoration of peace to our unhappy country. 

Resolved, That in order to vindicate the violated law, we pledge ourselves to 
use our utmost endeavors to ferret out and bring to merited punishment the 
guilty perpetrators of this most unnatural crime. 

Resolved, That the attempted assassination of Hon. William H. Seward, Sec- 
retary of State, and of his son, the Hon. Frederick W. Seward, meets, as in 



152 

the case of the President, with our deepest and most unqualified condemnation, 
trusting that the brutal assassin will be brought to speedy justice. 

Resolved, That we tender to the sorrow-stricken widow and family of our 
late President our most sincere condolence in this the hour of their great be- 
reavement. 

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Association be directed to transmit a 
copy of these resolutions to the family of the deceased. 

MEETING OP GERMAN CITIZENS. 

At a large meeting of Germans, held at the " Winter Gar- 
den," Pennsylvania avenue, Washington, of which Mr. Cohn- 
heim, editor of the " Columbia," was president, Dr. H. Risler and 
Geo. Gambs, Second Auditor's OfiSce, secretaries, F. Muhling- 
haus, treasurer, the following preamble and resolutions, in- 
troduced by Mr. A. Shucking, were unanimously adopted : 

Whereas a great calamity has befallen this nation in the sudden death of the 
President of the United States : 

Resolved, That we shudder at the deed which has violently deprived this na- 
tion of its constitutional head by the assassin's hand, as one of unparalleled 
atrocity, shocking to all mankind, and second only to the one commemorated 
in the day of its perpetration — "an offence most rank, that smells to heaven ;" 
a crime so enormous that in the presence of it a moral faintness overspreads 
the land. 

That this blow is stunning in its nature, because aimed at the head and 
declared choice of a whole nation ; and, if the voice of a free and enlightened 
people is the voice of God, thus aimed at the God-approved sacred head and 
representative of the sovereignty of a great people, an act of diabolical rebel- 
lion against God and man. 

That although dead in body, Abraham Lincoln, like George Washington, to- 
day liveth, and will continue present with his people, and in the hearts and 
sentiments of his countrymen, while he will live immortal as a martyr in the 
cause of human freedom for all time to come; his atrocious death will be rich 
and glorious in fruits ; the sacrifice of his life and blood will inspire to stronger 
and firmer purposes, resolves, and action. 

That we tender our profound sympathies to the family of the deceased ; 
though deprived as the nation itself is of a father, their anguish can scarcely 
be greater than that felt by ourselves and the friends of liberty and constitu- 
tional government, and of rectitude in its rulers, throughout the civilized world. 

That the German citizens wiil individually and in their various associate 
organizations pay the last sad respect to our late lamented President. 

Another series of resolutions, prepared by Dr. Henry Risler 



153 

in the German language for publication in the German papers 
of this country and Germany, were also unanimously adopted. 
In conclusion, Colonel Jos. Gerhardt was selected to report 
to the chief marshal. 

MEETING OF COLORED CITIZENS. 

Pursuant to notice, the colored citizens of Washington met 
in the Fifteenth-street Presbyterian church, on the anniversary 
of the emancipation in the District of Columbia. 

The meeting was organized by electing Mr. C. A. Stewart 
chairman, and Mr. W. H. Wormley secretary. Remarks were 
then made by several speakers, relative to the death of the 
late President of the United States. 

The Chair appointed the following gentlemen a committee on 
resolutions. 

Samuel J. Datcher, William Syphax, D. G. Muse, William 
A. Hughes, and John F. Cook. 

The committee, after a brief withdrawal, reported the fol- 
lowing resolutions, which were unanimously adopted, as expres- 
sive of the feelings of the meeting : 

Whereas on the 14th of April, 1865, our late President, Abraham Lincoln, 
was foully assassinated ; and whereas, in him, we, the colored people of the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, have lost an emancipator, benefactor, friend, and leader; 
therefore, be it 

Resolved, That we, in common with all other loyal citizens of the republic, 
have cause to mourn the sudden loss of one whose faithfulness to convictions of 
duty, and earnest execution of his realizations of the truth, whose warm-heart- 
edness, magnanimity, frankness, and honesty have endeared him to our hearts. 

Resolved, That we devoutly feel this lamentable event to be a part of the 
chastening discipline to which the nation is being subjected for its departure 
from the original principles on which the government was founded, the self- 
evident and unyielding truths of the Declaration of Independence, " That all 
men are born free and equal, and endowed with the inalienable gift of life, 
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." 

Resolved, That we condole with his sorrowing wife and bereaved children in 
the terrible bereavement ; and our sincere prayers shall be to Almighty God to 
6ustain them in their hour of saddening trial. 

Resolved, That we sincerely sympathize with the Hon. Secretary of State, 
and his son, the able Assistant Secretary, and their families, in their great suf- 



154 

fering and aggravated injuries, and pray God for tlieir speedy recovery to 
health. 

Resolved, That the foregoing resolutions be published in the city papers, and 
a copy be transmitted to the family of our late President. 

Tributes of respect to the memory and services of President 
Lincoln were expressed, in appropriate resolutions, by various 
benevolent organizations and churches in Washington city and 
Georgetown, but the limits assigned to this work preclude their 
insertion 



FUNERAL HONORS ON THE ROUTE FROM 
WASHINGTON TO SPRINGFIELD. 



The funeral cortege, by order of the Secretary of "War, who 
had superintended and directed the entire funeral ceremonies 
with admirable efficiency, left Washington with the remains of 
the late President, on Friday morning, the 21st of April, 1865, 
for Springfield, Illinois, the place of their final interment, and 
the early and cherished home of Mr. Lincoln. 

Peace ! Let the long procession come, 
For hark! — the mournful, muffled drum — 

The trumpet's wail afar — 

And see ! the awful car ! 

Peace! Let the sad procession go, 
"While cannon boom, and bells toll slow : 

And go, thou sacred car. 

Bearing our woe afar! 

Go, darkly borne, from State to State, 
Whose loyal, sorrowing cities wait 

To honor all they can 

The dust of that good man ! 

Go, grandly borne, with such a train 
As greatest kings might die to gain : 

The just, the wise, the brave 

Attend thee to the grave ! 

And you, the soldiers of our wars. 
Bronzed veterans, grim with noble scars, 

Salute him once again. 

Your late Commander — slain! 



156 

So, sweetly, sadly, sternly goes 
The Fallen to his last repose : 

Beneath no mighty dome. 

But in his modest home ; 

The churchyard where his children rest, ' 

The quiet spot that suits him best: 

There shall his grave be made, 

And there his bones be laid! 

And there his countrymen shall come. 
With memory proud, with pity dumb, 

And strangers far and near, 

For many and many a year ! 

For many a year, and many an age, 

While History on her ample page 

The virtues shall enroll 

Of that Paternal Soul! 

— ^R. II. Stoddard. 

And now the martyr is moving in triumphal march, mightier than when 
alive. The nation rises up at every stage of his coming. Cities and States are 
his pall-bearers, and the cannon speaks the hours with solemn progression. 
Dead, dead, dead, he yet speaketh. Is Washington dead? Is Hampden dead ? 
Is David dead? Disenthralled of flesh, risen to the unobstructed sphere where 
passion never comes, he begins his illimitable work. His life is now grafted 
upon the Infinite, and will be fruitful, as nO earthly life can be. Pass on, thou 
that hast overcome! Your sorrows, oh people, are hispseans; your bells and 
bands and muffled drums sound triumph in his ears. Wail and weep here ; 
God makes it echo joy and triumph there. Pass on! Four years ago, oh 
Illinois, we took from thy midst an untried man, and from among the people ; 
we return him to you a mighty conqueror. Not thine any more, but the na- 
tions ; not ours, but the world's. Give him place, oh ye prairies ! In the midst 
of this great continent his dust shall rest, a sacred treasure to myriads who 
shall pilgrim to that shrine to kindle anew their zeal and patriotism. Ye 
winds that move over the mighty places of the West chant his requiem! Ye 
people, behold the martyr, whose blood, as so many articulate words, pleads for 

fidelity, for law, for liberty! 

— IlENRT Ward Beecher. 



OBSEQUIES AT BALTIMORE. 

The funeral train arrived in Baltimore at 10 o'clock Friday 
morning, April 21st. Governor Bradford and the State and 
city authorities, Major General Wallace, Brigadier General 
Tyler, Commodore Dornin, and many other officers of the army 



157 

and navy were present, and escorted the remains to the funeral 
car ; thence they were followed by an immense multitude, and 
placed in state in the rotunda of the Exchange Building, and 
were visited by tens of thousands during the day. 

The nulitary display, under General Lockwood, was the most 
imposing ever witnessed in Baltimore ; and the civic procession, 
headed by the Governor of the State, and composed of the 
clergy, fire department, and benevolent associations, was the 
largest ever assembled in that city. The tribute was with an 
unanimity never before equalled by the citizens of Baltimore. 
The sorrow was sincere, and the homage to the illustrious dead 
universal. Houses, public buildings, churches, and flags, were 
everywhere draped in mourning symbols. 

This spontaneous tribute to the memory of President Lincoln 
marked a grand historic epoch in the public sentiment of Balti- 
more and Maryland in favor of the principles for which he 
died as a martyr. In February, 18G1, the President elect 
passed in secrecy through the city, on his way to Washington 
to be inaugurated ; but in April, 18G5, though a dead President, 
he is borne as a triumphant conqueror through the same city, 
and receives the profound and tearful homage of the people. 
The State, under his benign and wise administration of the 
general government, had been radically revolutionized in favor 
of freedom, and had abolished slavery by a legal and popular 
decree, and their reverence and love for the great emancipator 
and good man found expression in every form of sorrow. They 
felt the national calamity as a personal bereavement, and the 
honor paid to his memory and services were worthy of the 
Monumental city and State of Maryland, of which it is the 
metropolis. 

On the route from Baltimore tonarrisburg,at every railroad 
station, thousands of the country people assembled and mani- 
fested their sorrow in affecting and beautiful symbols. At 
York, the ladies asked permission to lay on the coffin a wreath 
of flowers. General Townsend, Assistant Adjutant General 
United States Army, granted the request, with a modification 
that six of them might perform the service. During the per- 
formance of a dirge by an instrumental band, the flowers were 
brought forth and carried in procession to the funeral car, 



158 

wliile tlie bells tolled, and all the men stood uncovered. The 
ladies — Mrs. Samuel Smalley, Mrs. Henry E. Miles, Mrs. 
David E. Smalley, Miss Plover, Miss Louisa Ducka, and 
Miss Jane Latimore — entered the car, three on each side of the 
coffin ; and the wreath having been handed to them, they placed 
it in the centre of the coffin and then retired, those who wit- 
nessed the scene bitterly weeping. The bells continued to toll 
and the band to sound its mournful strains. The wreath was 
very large ; about three feet in circumference. The outer circle 
was of roses, and alternate parallel lines were composed of 
white and red flowers of the choicest description. 

FUNERAL HONORS AT HARRISBURG. 

The Governor of Pennsylvania received the following official 
notice to receive the remains of the late President in the capi- 
tal of Pennsylvania : 

Washington, April 19, 1865. 
To his Excellency Governor A. G. Cuetin : 

The remains of the late President, Abraham Lincoln, will leave Washington 
on Friday morning at 8 o'clock, to go by way of Baltimore to Harrisburg, and 
thence to Philadelphia and New York, by the time-table as arranged. The re- 
mains will reach Harrisburg at 8 P. M. on Friday, and leave at 12 noon on 
Saturday, for Philadelphia, where they will remain until 4 o'clock Monday 
morning, and then be conveyed to New York. A copy of the time-table and 
programme will be forwarded to you to-morrow. You are respectfully invited 
to meet the remains with your staff, at such point as you may designate to this 
Department, and accompany them so far as you may be pleased to go. You 
will please signify to this Department, by telegraph, where you will join the 
remains ; whether you will take charge of them at Harrisburg ; where you will 
have them placed while they remain at the capital of your State, and what 
honors you desire to pay while there. 
By order of the Secretary of War : 

E. D. TOWNSEND, 
Brigadier General, A. A. O. 

In reply to the above, his Excellency immediately despatched 
as follows : 

Haerisbueg, A2yril 19. 
To Brigadier General Townsend, War Department : 

I propose to take charge of the remains at the line of the State, and to ac- 
company them until they leave the State. I will meet them at the border. 



159 

They will be placed in the capitol at Ilarrisburg. All the military and civil 

honors that can be arranged will be shown. Measures are being taken for that 

purpose. 

^ ^ A. G. CURTIN. 



PROCLAMATION OF THE GOVERNOR. 

In the name of and by the authority of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 
Andrew G. Curtin, Governor of the said Commonwealth — 

A PROCLAMATION. 

The remains of the murdered patriot, Abraham Lincoln, President of the 
United States, will arrive in the State on Friday evening next, on their way 
to the place of interment in Illinois. They will come from Baltimore to Ilar- 
risburg; thence they will, on Saturday, be conveyed to Philadelphia, and thence 
on Monday morning to New York. I shall meet them at the State line, and 
take charge of them while in the Commonwealth. I recommend that all busi- 
ness be suspended during their passage through the State. Local authorities 
and people everywhere join the State authorities heartily in paying honor to 
the memory of the martyred statesman who has fallen a victim to the savage 
treason of assassins. 

A. G. CURTIN. 

By the Governor : 

Eli Slifee, Secretary of the Commonwealth. 

The following order was sent to General Cadwalader, com- 
manding tlie military department of tlie State : 

War Depaktment, 
Adjutant General's Office, April 19. 
To Major General Cadwalader: 

You will meet the remains of the late President, Abraham Lincoln, upon 
their entry into your line, and escort them to Ilarrisburg, the capital of Penn- 
sylvania, keeping guard over them while they remain in your command. The 
ceremonies and public honors to be paid them, while in your command, will 
be in conformity with the direction of the Executive of the State, to whom you 
will report. 
. By order of the Secretary of War: 

E. D. TOWNSEND, A. A. O. 

On the reception of the remains, the streets of Ilarrisburg 
were densely thronged, and a large military escort accompanied 
the remains of President Lincoln to the State House, amid the 
sound of minute guns, where the corpse was exposed to the view 
of the public until a late hour at night. 

A little more than four years ago there was a scene of re- 



IGO 

joicing in the capital of the great Commonwealth of Pennsyl- 
vania. Flags were hung on outer walls, and there was every 
token of jubilation. Deep-moutlied cannon proclaimed a great 
event. Ilosannas rang in the air, and shouts of applause shook 
the capitol from foundation to dome. 

Four years had elapsed, and Abraham Lincoln, or at least 
his outward semblance, was again within the walls of the 
capitol. Now, as then, a vast concourse of people had gathered 
in the capitol of the Commonwealth, from far and wide. Those 
who saw him tlion saw him now, for that was the order of their 
coming. The same men and women who shouted and waved 
their handkerchiefs for Abraham Lincoln in 1861 were here 
now to mourn. 

The lips tliat moved then in praise, were lisping now in 
prayer ; for tlie lips of him who spoke then were now fixed in 
death. But the policy he enunicated tlien, through the grace 
of God, was fixed upon tlie country. He said then he would 
do nothing to alarm the American people or arouse their 
animosities. How well he had kept his promise let liis meek 
and merciful life testify. Some doubted him then ; none doubt 
him now. The once incredulous wept with the sanguine, for 
grief does but unite our hearts. Amid the general drapery 
of mourning, there was the great man's picture with tliis in- 
scribed : " Beincj dead, lie yet Uveth.'' Thirty thousand people 
from the adjacent country visited the remains of the late Presi- 
dent while in Ilarrisburg. in silent and solemn grief for their 
and the nation's loss. 

OBSEQUIES AT PHILADELPHIA. 

Pliiladelphia, the birthplace of American Independence, had 
no day in her history like that of Saturday, the 22d of April. 
At half-past four in the afternoon the remains of Abraham Lin- 
coln, the gentle and humane President, whom she loved as she 
loved AVashington in other days, arrived Avithin her limits. 
Half a million of sorrow-stricken people were upon the streets 
to do honor to all that was left of the man whom they 
rcsjicctcd, revered, and loved with an affection never before be- 
stowed upon any other, save the Fathei' of his Countiy. Uni- 



161 

versal grief was depicted on the faces of all. Hearts beat quick 
and fast with the throb of a sorrow whicli they had never before 
experienced. Young and old alike bowed in solemn reverence 
before the draped chariot which bore the body of the deceased, 
assassinated President. The feeling was too deep for expres- 
sion. The wet cheeks of the strong man, the tearful eyes of 
tlie maiden and the matron, the husli which pervaded the atmos- 
pliere and made it oppressive, the steady measured tread of the 
militaiy and tlio civic procession, the mournful dirges of the 
bands, the dismal tolling of the bells and tlie boom of the 
minute guns, toid more than it is possible for language to ex- 
press. Slowly and sadly the funeral cortege moved over the 
designated route. Everywhere were the emblems of mourning. 
The flags were all at half-mast and heavily draped, and not a 
house along the line of procession, indeed, not a house in all 
this vast city, but exhibited the signs of grief, the weeds of 
woe. Rome never paid such honors to her dead heroes. 
Greece never lavished such expressions of sorrow and regret 
over the remains of her departed great. The day was a day of 
mourning in Philadelphia. It was a day devoted solely as a 
mighty tribute of regard to the illustrious dead ; and as the 
funeral car bearing the casket which inclosed the precious dust 
passed along the crowded streets, all felt that too much respect 
could not be given to the dead President, whose every thought, 
whose every pulsation of his generous heart, and whose only 
ambition were for the wclfrvre of his poor bleeding country. 

The mourning throngs at least realized, what it was so dif- 
ficult to realize just one week previous, that the noble ruler, 
who for four years had been striving to secure the perpetuity 
of our institutions, and preserve untarnished the lustre of our 
old flag, had passed from life unto death. 

They thought of all that he had done ; how bravely he had 
stood up during the darkest days of the rebellion, and encour- 
aged his people ; how his own stout heart, stout in faith and 
the justice of our cause, had refused to yield to despondency, 
and ever hopeful, ever cheerful, had imparted his own hope- 
fulness, his own buoyancy, to their own hearts. 

They tlionght of his unselfishness, and they recalled to mind 
the tiiousand magnanimous acts which have endeared him so to 
1 1 



lG-2 

the affections of the people. The mother, the wife, the sister, 
remembered liow he cared for the soldier, and the sleepless 
interest he took in his welfare. The veteran remembered his 
kind words and genial smiles, and turned aside and wept. 
Children gazed through dimmed eyes on the sable chariot, and 
felt that they too had lost a parent in " Father Abraham." 

ARRIVAL AT INDEPENDENCE HALL. 

It was nearly 8 o'clock when the funeral car arrived oppo- 
site the lower or southern main entrance to Independence 
Square. The Union League Association were detailed to re- 
ceive the body at that point, and superintend the work of hav- 
ing it placed in its proper position in Independence Hall. The 
members of the league assembled in great numbers at Concert 
Hall, about 5 o'clock, and proceeded from thence to Independ- 
ence Square, accompanied by a fine band of music and colors 
draped in black. The members were all dressed in full suits of 
black, and wore white gloves. On reaching the square, the 
members of the association took up position on either side of 
the main thoroughfare ; they were formed in two ranks, and 
filled the square from one end to the other. The band was 
placed in the State House steeple, and prior to the arrival of 
the remains performed a number of dirges. 

When the funeral car reached the main enti-ance to the 
square, the coffin was removed and taken within the inclosure, 
when the line of procession was formed, consisting of the body- 
guard and pall-bearers, and the solemn cortege moved slowly 
and sorrowfully through tlie square to Independence Hall. 
The members of the Union League stood with uncovered heads, 
and the band in the steeple performed a mournful dirge. Tlie 
square was brilliantly illuminated. 

In the shadows of night and to the sad music of the wailing 
bands, the dead President was borne through Lidcpendence 
Square into Independence Hall. Abraham Lincoln, tlie martyr 
of the nineteenth century, was laid in solemn repose beneath 
the roof whicli covered the grand old heroes and statesmen of 
tlie Revolulioii. Cold and I'feless he lay in the same chamber 
where our fathers subscribed their names to tlie immortal 



1(53 

magna cliarta of our liberties, the declaration of American 
independence. On the 22d of February, 18G1, he was in that 
hall, and under the inspiration of its sacred memories, wliile 
raising tlie national flag above its hallowed roof, he uttered these 
significant words : 

It was something in the Declaration of Independence, giving liberty, not only 
to the people of this country, but hope to the world for all future time. It w.is 
that which gave promise that in due time the weights should be lifted from the 
shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance. * * Now, 
my friends, can the country be saved upon that basis? If it can, I will con- 
sider myself one of the lianpiest men in the world if I can help to save it. But 
if this country cannot be saved without giving up that principle, I was about 
to say I would rather be assassinated upon this spot than to surrender it. 

He may have had a glimpse into the future, and his eye may 
have seen dimly the fate which overtook him at the moment the 
noble principles for which he has so long and faithfully con- 
tended were triumphantly vindicated and forever established. 

It was proper that Abraham Lincoln, the champion of free- 
dom, the martyr to those principles, should rest over the holy 
Sabbath in this sanctuary of the republic. It was fitting that 
his remains should repose during the sacred hours beneath the 
eyes of the statesmen and patriots who look down from the 
walls of that consecrated temple — a temple dedicated nearly a 
century since by our fathers as a slirine to human freedom — a 
shrine to which all time would come with reverence and affec- 
tion. It was meet tliat the sacrifice of the nineteentli century 
should be laid in awful glory at the feet of liis statue whose 
memory we were taught to love and honor in our infancy — 
George "Washington. 

At the head of the coffin, clothed in black drapery, relieved 
by a profusion of flowers in bouquets, wreaths, crosses, and 
anchors, is tlic great bell tliat ninety years ago burst with tlie 
mighty strokes that proclaimed the passage of the Declaration 
of Independence. It still bears in cut bron/ic the famous in- 
scription — 

Proclaim Liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof. — 
Lev., XXV., 10. 

Then there is the chair in wliich Hancock sat when presiding 



164 

over the Continental Congress ; the chair he rose from when 
he stepped to the clerk's desk on the fourth day of July, 1Y76, 
to sign his name in bold characters to the Declaration. Around 
the room are statues and pictures of Washington and others of 
the fathers. The whole hall is one mass of flags, drapery, and 
flowers — flags for patriotism, drapery for mourning, flowers for 
love, for hope, for all tender and beautiful sentiment, and for 
the resurrection. 

Independence Hall has, during the years which succeeded the 
Fourth of July, 1776, been the scene of many joys and much 
sorrow, but the old walls never before witnessed such touching 
displays of grief. The occasion will be ever memorable in its 
history as one in which a city's tears were freely shed, when 
sorrow and distress were superior to every other interest, and 
when mourning thousands passed through its sacred inclosure 
intent only upon a tearful duty. Peace to the memory of the 
good President. Honor will gild his name in history, and 
generations yet unborn will bless the memory of the mfin who 
restored republican institutions to their true course, and taught 
the world a lesson of freedom which will redound to the advan- 
tage of the oppressed in every land. 

Of all the incidents connected with tlie late solemnities in 
Philadelphia, not one has been so full of silent patlios, so full 
of present and future meaning, as that of the poor black woman 
bringing her "roughly-made" wreath of evergreen, and in tears 
presenting it, to be placed at the head, or at the feet, or some- 
where near the beloved remains of him, the crowning act of 
whose life was the immense benefit he had conferred upon her 
people — her down-trodden, her oppressed people. Was she not 
on that solemn occasion the chosen representative of her race ? 
'Twas right to strew rare and sweet flowers around the form 
of tlie one so loved and honored. This poor woman's tribute 
was, however, an evergreen — emblematic of the everlasting re- 
membrance in which the name of Abraham Lincoln would be 
held in all time to come. 

No formal funeral oration or services were performed over 
the remains while in Philadelphia, except an expressive prayer 
offered by Rev. Dr. Brooks, on the reception of the remains at 
Independence Hall. The Sabbath, as the remains rested in 



165 

that consecrated Hall, was improved by most of the ministers 
in delivering appropriate discourses on the character of the il- 
lustrious dead, and the providence that had so suddenly be- 
reaved the nation of its great chieftain and ruler. 

The funeral procession through the streets of the city num- 
bered one hundred thousand, and three hundred thousand more 
were spectators. During Saturday evening, the 22d of April, 
and the following Sabbath, it was estimated that three hundred 
thousand visited Independence Hall to gaze upon the face of 
our martyred and immortal President. The days are historic 
and memorable days in the annals of that patriotic and loyal 
city, and will be in interest and moral significance reckoned 
with the immortal days of revolutionary memory, which trans- 
pired in that city then, so full of the inspirations of liberty and 
of loyal devotion to the great principles of freedom and right 
for which Abraham Lincoln fell a martyr on the night of the 
14th*of April, 1865. 

The scenes between Philadelphia and New York were im- 
pressive pictures of the universal sorrow. 

At Newark, New Jersey, it seemed as if the inhabitants had 
resolved to turn out en masse to pay their brief tribute of 
respect to the memory of the departed as his coffin passed by. 
For a distance of a mile, the observer on the train could per- 
ceive only one sea of human beings. It was not a crowd surg- 
ing with excitement or impatience like most assemblages, but 
stood quiet and apparently subdued with grief unspeakable. 
Every man, with hardly an exception, from one end of the town 
to the other, stood bareheaded while the train passed ; half of 
the women were crying, and every face bore an expression of 
sincere sadness. Housetops, fences, and the very ditches beside 
the track, were covered with people. Nothing could be more 
touching than the simple unanimity with which the men and 
women of Newark left their avocations and waited beside the 
track for the passage of the funeral train. 

Jersey City witnessed a grand reception of the remains of 
the President. The train moved slowly into the immense 
station, than which there is no larger hall in the country. A 
brilliant collection of military officers and a large number of 
civic dignitaries were gathered on the floor. The long galleries, 



166 

extending all around the hall, were filled with ladies, and in the 
centre of the hall was stationed a choir of seventy German 
male singers, whose voices ascended through the lofty arches in 
a solemn chant, the sound blending in exquisite harmony with 
the solemnity of the scene. The reception at Newark was the 
most touching; that at Jersey City the most thrilling. A sin- 
gular circumstance in this building was the huge clock of the 
railroad station being stopped at twenty minutes past seven, the 
hour of the President's death. As the cortege crossed the 
river on the ferry-boat, the choir sang again with fine effect. 

FUNERAL HONORS IN NEW YORK. 

New York never before saw such days as it witnessed on 
Monday and Tuesday, the 24th and 25tli of April, 1865. Rome 
in the palmiest days of its power never witnessed such a 
triumphal march as New York formed and looked upon. 
When, four years ago, Abraham Lincoln passed through 
the city to be armed with authority as the nation's leader, 
Broadway sufficed to contain the crowd which, with varied 
sentiments, cheered, and scoffed, and scowled him a doubtful 
welcome. When the same people, inspired with a common, 
universal sorrow, sadly followed his body, crowned with more 
glorious honors as the nation's saviour, the same wide street 
hardly held a fraction of them. Then he was going to be 
crowned Chief Magistrate of a divided people and disruptured 
nation on the eve of a great, bloody, and uncertain war. Now 
he was the great martyr of a nation united under his guidance 
and that of God, by the successful close of that gloomy war. 
Then he passed through almost unknown, and the crowd that 
followed his coach with cheers were actuated by curiosity as 
much as by admiration. Now it was different ; it witnessed 
the real triumphal march of Abraham Lincoln ; for he had con- 
quered the prejudices of all classes, and the hearts of the peo- 
ple who honored him beat with love and veneration for the 
man. Better for his fame that it should thus come late than 
too soon. This test of his success and his greatness can never 
be doubted or disputed. 

No city in Europe, upon any occasion, whether joyful or 



167 

mournful, could produce anything like it, if we regard it either 
in point of numbers, or the class of men who participated, or 
the universality with which all interests, nationalities, creeds, 
political bodies, trades, professions, and ranks united — all ani- 
mated by one spirit, and that spirit respect for the dead, asso- 
ciated with a deep love of country, of whicli the illustrious 
departed was so honorable an example. The funeral ceremo- 
nies of the first Napoleon, in the streets of Paris, when his re- 
mains were transferred from St. Helena to the Invalides by 
Louis Philippe, were regarded as the greatest pageant the world 
had ever known, but the pageant in New York far exceeded 
it. The idol of France received no more devoted homage than 
was paid to the deceased President of the United States by 
the people of the metropolis of this republic. The restoration 
of the dead Napoleon to France brought about the restoration 
of the Bonaparte dynasty. So the circumstances attending 
the death of Mr. Lincoln have ushered in a new era in the po- 
litical history of this country — an era of strength, unity, and 
unswerving patriotism. As France, under the regime inaugu- 
rated by that event, became a great empire, so also will the 
United States assume, from the consequences of the tragedy 
which has lately been enacted, a grander position as a republic 
than they have ever occupied before. 

It is estimated that there were in the procession one hundred 
thousand men, of whom twenty tliousand were soldiers. One 
hundred bands sent forth solemn strains of music during the 
march. From half a million to a million of spectators are 
supposed to have witnessed the spectacle. Among those who 
followed the remains was the venerable soldier and chieftain, 
Lieutenant General Scott. 

The city, in all its private and public buildings, was draped 
in symbols of mourning, and beautiful and appropriate mottoes 
were everywhere seen, expressive of the profound and heart- 
felt grief of that great commercial centre of the nation. 

The public services in Union Square, held on Tuesday after- 
noon, the 25th of April, were of the most imposing grandeur and 
solemnity. They were opened with the following prayer, by 



168 

Rev. Stephen H. Tyng, who was introduced to the vast au- 
dience by ex-Governor King : 

I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord; he that believeth in me, 
though he were dead, yet shall he live ; and whosoever liveth and believeth in 
me shall never die. I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand 
at the latter day upon the earth, and though after my skin worms destroy this 
body, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes 
shall behold and not another. We brought nothing into this world, and it is 
certain we can carry nothing out. The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken 
away, blessed be the name of the Lord. 0, God, who art the God of the spirits 
of all flesh, in whose hand our breath is, and whose are all our ways, in Thine 
infinite wisdom Thou hast seen well to take away the desire of our eyes with 
a stroke, the anointed of the Lord and the faithful choice of a loving people, 
under whose shadow we hoped and desired to dwell before Thee. We bow be- 
fore Thy righteous will with deep humiliation, submission, confidence, and faith. 
We revere and acknowledge Thee as the high and lofty One who inhabitest 
eternity, whose name is Holy, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow 
of turning. We look upon Thee as a Father of infinite tenderness, reconciling 
us unto Thyself in Thy dear Son ; and as a father pitieth his own children, so 
have compassion on all them that fear Thee. We confess Thee as the Saviour 
and defence of Thy people, who hast put away their sins by an infinite sacri- 
fice, and as far as the east is from the west, and rememberest our iniquity no 
more. We acknowledge Thee this day the God of all comfort and consolation, 
whose gracious command in Thy word is, " Comfort ye, comfort ye, my peo- 
ple, saith your God ; cry unto them that their warfare is accomplished and their 
iniquity is pardoned." 0, God, we would bow with deep humility before the 
righteousness of Thy will, and with unfeigned gratitude acknowledge the ful- 
ness of Thy grace. A mourning and bereaved people gather together at Thy 
feet; we would come with the deepest feeling of thankfulness for that which 
Thou hast given and for that which Thou hast taken away. We bless Thee for 
all the influence, example, wisdom, and fidelity of the loved and exalted ruler 
whom Thou didst set up over us, and whom Thou hast now taken to 
Thyself. We praise Thee that Thou hast made him the instrument of 
saving this nation from overthrow and ruin ; that Thou hast made 
him thine agent in subduing a rebellion terrific and atrocious, whose 
condemnation is recorded by Thee. We bless Thee that Thou hast spoken 
peace by him to the oppressed and suffering, proclaiming liberty to those held 
in bondage, and bid millions of helpless and despairing lift up their heads with 
joy among Thy people. We thank Thee for the remembrance of all his fidelity 
in government, ruling in equity as the morning which ariseth without a cloud, 
and for all that meekness, and gentleness, and faithfulness, and love, so attract- 
ive and so conspicuous in his example. And while with the deepest sense of 
our loss we bow, as bereaved and mourning ones at Thy feet, with the most 
humble thankfulness for all that the nation has gained through his instrument- 



169 

ality and faithfulness, we adore and glorify Thy name. We meet throughout 
this land to-day in the spirit of accordant supplication and praise. We implore 
thy blessing upon this whole nation, that this chastisement, painful and mys- 
terious as it appears, may be Thine instrument of uniting this people in bonds 
of fellowship and love, and bringing the hearts of all in full accord in the sup- 
port of the government Thou hast set over us, and in seeking the things which 
make for peace and things whereby one may edify another. We pray that in the 
midst of Thy judgments this whole nation may learn righteousness. We implore 
Thy gracious blessing upon the sorrowing and the suffering, upon the wounded and 
the bereaved who have given their joy on earth, their health in early life, as a 
service and sacrifice for their fidelity to us and their obedience to Thee. We 
unite in supplication for Thy blessing upon the widow and the fatherless, who 
stood in the tenderest relations to our honored and exalted ruler, and while 
from them, as from us, thou hast hidden lover and friend in darkness, we im- 
plore Thee to be the everlasting Ruler of this people, and make them to remem- 
ber and feel that the Most High ordereth all things among the nations of the 
earth, putting down one and setting up another. 

We implore Thy blessing upon him whom, in Thine own providence, Thou 
hast exalted to be the present ruler of this nation. Guai-d his valued life from 
outward violence and from fear of wrong; guide him by Thine own wisdom and 
judgment, and succor and defend him by Thine own protecting power. Give 
him wise and faithful counsellors who shall combine to rule this people in 
equity and truth ; prosper all their efforts for a speedy, stable, and righteous 
peace throughout this nation. 0, God, in the sorrow of this day, hasten the 
coming hour when this people shall desire to learn war no more ; when they 
shall speak peace to all the nations of the earth, and North and South, East 
and West, dwelling in concord and harmony, we shall be one people, known 
by one name and feeling, and that we have one interest forever. Set up Thy 
glorious Gospel through all this land; make it Emmanuel's land; and as Thou 
wast our fathers' God, be Thou our God and the God of our seed afterwards, 
from generation to generation, through successive presidents of fidelity, useful- 
ness, and honor ; that this people may be a prospered people, a thankful people, 
a useful people, a holy people, under Thy government and by Thy blessing. 
And this day we ask that for all the nations of the earth a dominion of right- 
eousness and peace — Thine everlasting dominion — may be set up, and the king- 
dom of our Lord and of his Christ. Meet us, sanctify us, and bless us as we 
are here together ; and in the spirit of filial gratitude and humility, teach us to 
unite in using those precious words of our Divine Redeemer: Our Father who 
art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done 
on earth as it is in heaven ; give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us 
our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us ; and lead us not into 
temptation, but deliver us from evil: for thine is the kingdom, and the power, 
and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen. 

ORATION BY THE HON. GEO. BANCROFT. 

A few words from the chairman introduced the orator of the 
occasion to the assemblao-e. 



170 

The Hon. Geo. Bancroft then proceeded to deliver the fol 
lowing oration, during the delivery of which he was frequently 
applauded : 

Our grief and horror at the crime which has clothed the continent in mourn- 
ing find no adequate expression in words, and no relief in tears. The President 
of the United States of America has fallen by the hands of an assassin. Neither 
the office with which he was invested by the approved choice of a mighty peo- 
ple, nor the most simple-hearted kindliness of nature, could save him from the 
fiendish passions of relentless fanaticism. The wailings of the millions attend 
his remains as they are borne in solemn procession over our great rivers, along 
the sea-side, beyond the mountains, across the prairie, to their final resting 
place in the valley of the Mississippi. The echoes of his funeral knell vibrate 
through the world, and the friends of freedom of every tongue and in every 
clime are his mourners. Too few days have passed away since Abraham Lin- 
coln stood in the flush of vigorous manhood to permit any attempt at analysis 
of his character or an exposition of his career. We find it hard to believe that 
his large eyes, which in their softness and beauty expressed nothing but benevo- 
lence and gentleness, are closed in death ; we almost look for the pleasant smile 
that brought out more vividly the earnest cast of his features, which were 
serious even to sadness. A few years ago he was a village attorney, engaged 
in the support of a rising family, unknown to fame, scarcely named beyond 
his neighborhood; his administration made him the most conspicuous man in 
his country, and drew on him first the astonished gaze, and then the respect 
and admiration of the world. Those who come after us will decide how much 
of the wonderful results of his public career is due to his own good common 
sense, his shrewd sagacity, readiness of wit, quick interpretation of the public 
mind; his rare combination of fixedness and pliancy; his steady tendency of 
purpose; how much to the American people, who, as he walked with them, side 
by side, inspired him with their own wisdom and energy ; and how much to 
the overruling laws of the moral world, by which the selfishness of evil is 
made to defeat itself. But after every allowance, it will remain that members 
of the government which preceded his administration opened the gates to trea- 
son, and he closed them; that when he went to Washington the ground on 
which he trod shook under his feet, and he left the republic on a solid founda- 
tion ; that traitors had seized public forts and arsenals, and he recovered them 
for the United States, to whom they belonged; that the capital, which he found 
the abode of slaves, is now the home only of the free ; that the boundless 
public domain which was grasped at, and, in a great measure, held for the 
diffusion of slavery, is now irrevocably devoted to freedom ; that then men 
talked a jargon of a balance of power in a republic between slave States and 
free States, and now the foolish words are blown away forever by the breath 
of Maryland, Missouri and Tennessee; that a terrific cloud of political heresy 
rose from the abyss, threatening to liide the light of th6 sun, and under its 
darkness a rebellion was rising into indefinable proportions; now the atmos- 
phere is purer than ever before, and the insurrection is vanishing away ; the 
country is cast into another mould, and the gigantic system of wrong which 
had been the work of more than two centuries is dashed down, we hope forever. 



171 

And as to himself personally: he was then scoffed at by the proud as unfit for 
his station, and now against the usage of later years, and in spite of numerous 
competitors, he was the unbiassed and the undoubted choice of the American 
people for a second term of service. Through all the mad business of treason 
he retained the sweetness of a most placable disposition ; and the slaughter of 
myriads of the best on the battle-field and the more terrible destruction of our 
men in captivity by the slow torture of exposure and starvation, had never 
been able to provoke him into harboring one vengeful feeling or one purpose 
of crnelty. 

How shall the nation most completely show its sorrow at Mr. Lincoln's death ? 
How shall it best honor his memory ? There can be but one answer. He was 
struck down when he was highest in its service, and in strict conformity with 
duty was engaged in carrying out principles affecting its life, its good name, and 
its relations to the cause of freedom and the progress of mankind. Grief must 
take the character of action, and breathe itself forth in the assertion of the 
policy to which he fell a sacrifice. The standard which he lield in his hand 
must be uplifted again, higher and more firmly than before, and must be carried 
on to triumph. Above everything else, his proclamation of the 1st day of 
January, 18G3, declaring throughout the parts of the country in rebellion the 
freedom of all persons who had been held as slaves, must be aSirmed and main- 
tained. Events, as they rolled onward, have removed every doubt of the 
legality and binding force of that proclamation. The country and the rebel 
government have each laid claim to the public service of the slave, and yet but 
one of the two can have a rightful claim to such service. That rightful claim 
belongs to the United States, because every one born on their soil, with the few 
exceptions of the children of travellers and transient residents, owes them a 
primary allegiance. Every one so born has been counted among those repre- 
sented in Congress; every slave has ever been represented in Congress — imperfectly 
and wrongly it may be — but still has been counted and represented. The slave 
born on our soil always owed allegiance to the general government. It may in 
time past have been a qualified allegiance, manifested through his master, as 
the allegiance of a ward through its guardian or of an infant through ils parent. 
But when the master became false to his allegiance, the slave stood face to face 
with his country, and his allegiance, which may before have been a qualified 
one, became direct and immediate. His chains fell off, and he stood at once in 
the presence of the nation, bound, like the rest of us, to its public defence. Mr. 
Lincoln's proclamation did but take notice of the already existing right of the 
bondman to freedom. The treason of the master made it a public crime for the 
slave to continue his obedience ; the treason of a State set free the collective 
bondmen of that State. This doctrine is supported by the analogy of prece- 
dents. In the times of feudalism, the treason of the lord of the manor deprived 
him of his serfs ; the spurious feudalism that existed among us differs in many 
respects from the feudalism of the middle ages, but so far the precedent runs 
parallel with the present case; for treason the master then, for treason the 
master now, loses his slaves. In the middle ages the sovereign appointed another 
lord over the serfs and the land which they cultivated; in our day the sovereign 
makes them masters of their own persons, lords over themselves. It has been 



172 

said that we are at war, and that emancipation is not a belligerent right. The 
objection disappears before analysis. In a war between independent powers, 
the invading foreigner invites to his standard all who will give him aid, whether 
bond or free, and he rewards them according to his ability and his pleasure 
with gifts or freedom ; but when at peace he withdraws from the invaded 
country he must take his aiders and comforters with him ; or if he leaves them 
behind, where he has no court to enforce his decrees, he can give them no 
security, unless it be by the stipulations of a treaty. In a civil war it is 
altogether different. There, when rebellion is crushed, the old government is 
restored, and its courts resume their jurisdiction. So it is with us ; the United 
States have courts of their own that must punish tlie guilt of treason and vin- 
dicate the freedom of persons whom the fact of rebellion has set free. Nor 
may it be said that because slavery existed in most of the States when the 
Union was formed, it cannot rightfully be interfered with now. A change has 
taken place, such as Madison foresaw, and for which he pointed out the remedy. 
The constitutions of States had been transformed before the plotters of treason 
carried them away into rebellion. When the federal constitution was formed, 
general emancipation was thought to be near, and everywhere the respective 
legislatures had authority, in the exercise of their ordinary functions, to do 
away with slavery ; since that time the attempt has been made in what are 
called slave States to make the condition of slavery perpetual ; and events have 
proved, with the clearness of demonstration, that a constitution which seeks to 
continue a caste of hereditary bondmen through endless generations is incon- 
sistent with the existence of republican institutions. So, then, the new Presi- 
dent and the people of the United States must insist that the proclamation of free- 
dom shall stand as a reality ; and, moreover, the people must never cease to 
insist that the Constitution shall be so amended as utterly to prohibit slavery on 
any part of our soil forevermore. Alas ! that a State in our vicinity should 
withhold its assent to this last beneficent measure ; its refusal was an encourage- 
ment to our enemies equal to the gain of a pitched battle, and delays the only 
hopeful method of pacification. The removal of the cause of the rebellion is 
not only demanded by justice ; it is the policy of mercy, making room for a 
wider clemency; it is the part of order against a chaos of controversy; its suc- 
cess brings with it true reconcilement, a lasting peace, a continuous growth of 
confidence through an assimilation of the social condition. Here is the fitting 
expression of the mourning of to-day. ***** 

No one can turn back or stay the march of Providence. No sentiment of 
despair may mix with our sorrow. We owe it to the memory of the dead, we 
owe it to the cause of popular liberty throughout the world, that the sudden 
crime which has taken the life of the President of the United States shall not 
produce the least impediment in the smooth course of public affairs. This great 
city, in the midst of unexampled emblems of deeply seated grief, has sustained 
itself with composure and magnanimity. It has nobly done its part in guard- 
ing against the derangement of business or the slightest shock to public credit. 
The enemies of the republic put it to the severest trial ; but the voice of faction 
has not been heard ; doubt and despondency have been unknown. In serene 
majesty the country rises in the beauty, and strength, and hope of youth, and 



proves to the world the quiet energy and the durability of institutions growing 
out of the reason and affections of the people. Heaven has willed it that the 
United States shall live. The nations of the earth cannot spare them. All the 
worn-out aristocracies of Europe saw in the spurious feudalism of slaveholding 
their strongest outpost, and banded themselves together with the deadly enemies 
of our national life. If the Old World will discuss the respective advantages of 
oligarchy or equality ; of the union of church and state, or the rightful freedom 
of religion; of land accessible to the many, or of land monopolized by an ever 
decreasing number of the few, the United States must live to control the decision 
by their quiet and unobtrusive example. It has often and truly been observed 
that the trust and affection of the masses gather naturally round an individ- 
ual ; if the inquiry is made whether the man so trusted and beloved shall elicit 
from the reason of the people enduring institutions of their own, or shall se- 
quester political power for a superintending dynasty, the United States must 
live to solve the problem. If a question is raised on the respective merits of 
Timoleon or Julius Caesar, of Washington or Napoleon, the United States must 
be there to call to mind that there were twelve Caesars, most of them the oppro- 
brium of the human race, and to contrast with them the line of American Presi- 
dents. The duty of the hour is incomplete, our mourning is insincere, if while 
we express unwavering trust in the great principles that underlie our govern- 
ment, we do not also give our support to the man to whom the people have 
entrusted its administration. Andrew Johnson is now by the Constitution the 
President of the United States, and he stands before the world as the most con- 
spicuous representative of the industrial classes. Left an orphan at four years 
old, poverty and toil were his steps to honor. His youth was not passed in the 
halls of colleges ; nevertheless he has received a thorough political education 
in statesmanship in the school of the people, and by long experience of public 
life. A village functionary, member successively of each branch of the Ten- 
nessee Legislature, hearing with a thrill of joy the words, "The Union, it must 
be preserved ;" a representative in Congress for successive years ; Governor of 
the great State of Tennessee, approved as its Governor by re-election ; he was 
at the opening of the rebellion" a Senator of that State in Congress. Then at 
the Capitol, when senators, unrebuked by the government, sent word by tele- 
gram to seize forts and arsenals, he alone from that Southern region told them 
what the government did not dare to tell them — that they were traitors, and 
deserved the punishment of treason. Undismayed by a perpetual purpose of 
public enemies to take his life, bearing up against the still greater trial of the 
persecution of his wife and children, in due time he went back to his State, de- 
termined to restore it to the Union, or die with the American flag for his wind- 
ing sheet. And now, at the call of the United States, he has returned to Wash- 
ington as a conqueror, with Tennessee as a free State for his trophy. It remains 
for him to consummate the vindication of the Union. To that Union Abraham 
Lincoln has fallen a martyr. His death, which was meant to sever it beyond 
repair, binds it more closely and more firmly than ever. The blow aimed at 
him was aimed not at the native of Kentucky, not at the citizen of Illinois, 
but at the man who, as President, in the executive branch of the government, 
Btood as the representative of every man in the United States. The object of 



174 

the crime was the life of the wliole people, and it wound? the affections of the 
whole people. From Maine to the southwest boundary of the Pacific, it makes 
us one. The country may have needed an imperishable grief to touch its in- 
most feeling. The grave that receives the remains of Lincoln receives the 
martyr to the Union ; the monument which will rise over his body will bear 
witness to the Union ; his enduring memory will assist during countless ages to 
bind the States together, and to incite to the love of our one undivided, indi- 
visible country. Peace to the ashes of our departed friend, the friend of his 
country and his race. Happy was his life, for he was the restorer of the 
republic; he was happy in his death, for the manner of his end will plead for- 
ever for the Union of the States and the freedom of man. 

After the oration, the Rev. J. P. Thompson, D. D., read the 
inaugural of the 4th of March, 1865, which was received with 
enthusiastic applause. It is on the seventh page of this Memo- 
rial Record. 

Rev. W. H. Boole then read the 94th Psalm. 

1. Lord God, to whom vengeance belongeth ; God, to whom vengeance 
belongeth, shew thyself. 

2. Lift up thyself, thou judge of the earth : render a reward to the proud. 

3. Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph ? 

4. How long shall they utter and speak hard things ? and all the workers of 
iniquity boast themselves ? 

5. They break in pieces thy people, O Lord, and afflict thine heritage. 

6. They slay the widow and the stranger and murder the fatherless. 

7. Yet they say, the Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it. 

8. Understand, ye brutish among the people : and ye fools, when will ye be 
wise? 

9. He that planted the ear, shall he not hear ? he that formed the eye, shall 
he not see. 

10. He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not he correct ? he that teacheth 
man knowledge, shall not he know ? 

11. The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity. 

12. Blessed is the man whom thou chasteneth, Lord, and teachest him out 
of thy law. 

13. That thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity, until the pit 
be digged for the wicked. 

14. For the Lord will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his in- 
heritance. 

15. But judgment shall return unto righteousness; and all the upright in 
heart shall follow it. 

16. Wlio will rise up for me against the evil doers ? or shall stand up for 
me against the workers of iniquity ? 

17. Unless the Lord had been my help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence. 

18. When I said, my foot slippeth ; thy mercj', Lord, held me up. 



175 

19. In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my 
Boul. 

20. Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth 
mischief by a law ? 

21. They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and 
condemn the innocent blood. 

22. But the Lord is my defence ; and my God is the rock of my refnge. 

23. And he shall bring upon them their own iniquity, and shall cut them off 
in their own wickedness ; yea, the Lord our God shall cut them off. 

Rev. Dr. Rogers then made the following prayer : 

Almighty and everlasting God. Thou art our God and we will praise Thee. 
Thou wort our father's God and we will magnify Thy holy name. Thou art 
the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity. Thou doest all things according 
to Thy will, among the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth. 
None can stay Thy hands or say, "What doest Thou?" Thy way is in the sea, 
and Thy path in the great waters, and Thy footsteps are not known. Clouds 
and darkness are around and beneath, but righteousness and judgment are the 
habitudes of Thy throne. Thou hast in Thy inscrutable Providence called us 
together in sadness and sorrow, and stricken a mourning people. They bow 
beneath the stroke of Thy hand, and we lift up our hearts to Thee out of the 
depths of the calamity. Thou hast removed by a sudden, violent, and unex- 
pected blow our honored President. Thou hast broken our strong staff and our 
beautiful rod, and from one end of this land to the other the sound of wailing 
and of woe is borne on every breeze. The nation follows the body of its lamented 
chief with mourning hearts and streaming eyes to its last earthly resting place. 
We humble ourselves, oh God, beneath the stroke of Thy hand, and we find 
comfort and hope in the thought that it is not an enemy that has dealt us the 
blow, but that of a just God, in His infinite wisdom, and who doeth all things 
well ; and so we would say in the midst of our sorrows over the bier of our 
lamented and murdered President, " The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken 
away, blessed be the name of the Lord." But oh, our God, while we mourn, 
we thank Thee for the circumstances of mercy which are mingled with this 
stroke. We bless Thee in the midst of our sorrow that Thou didst give us Thy 
servant to be the leader and commander of Thy people in times of peril. And 
we bless Thee that Thou didst gird him with wisdom and might and counsel in 
the field. We bless Thee that Thou didst guide him in all the so difficult and 
delicate way, and didst permit him to live so long and do so much for the benefit 
and welfare of this land. And we bless Thee that since it was Thy will to 
take him away, Thou didst remove him in the midst of his race with honors, 
with no shadow upon his fame, but to be cherished in the memory of a grateful 
people to the latest generations. We bless Thee that Thou didst permit our 
lamented chief to see this atrocious and causeless rebellion crushed. We bless 
Thee that Thou didst permit him to see the loved banners of our country waving 
again in triumph over all its States and Territories. We bless Thee that Thou 
didst permit him to bring freedom to the captive, and libc-rty to the bondsman, 



176 

and to go to his honored grave to be kept ever green by the tears of a grateful 
people, having done his work and done it well, to the glory of God, and for the 
benefit of his native land. And while we sorrow, we sorrow not as others 
who have no hope. We bless God for his memory, enshrined in our deepest 
hearts. Oh ! let it be sacred to the remotest times in the great hearts of the 
American people. Let it be an inspiration to all that is pure, all that is honest, 
all that is faithful, all that is patriotic ; to all that is patient, gentle, loving, and 
kind ; to all that is firm, to all that is Christian ; and let peace, with freedom, 
with justice, with righteousness, and with Christianity, raise an everlasting 
monument above the spot where sleeps his honored dust. Our Father, we com- 
mend to Thee the country for which he loved and wept, and toiled and prayed 
and died. We bless Thee that Thou hast given to that wearied brain rest — rest 
to that anxious heart — rest to that troubled spirit — a blessed rest. But we bless 
Thee that though the President died, the republic lives, God lives, our just God, 
and we bless Thee that though our Moses led the people through the wilder- 
ness to the borders of Canaan, he saw as from Mount Pi.sgah the glorious land 
of Promise, and laid him down to die, that Thou hadst another Joshua to take 
his work upon him and to clear this beautiful land of the last remnant of the 
rebellious tribes. Oh ! God, assist our new President in his work; let him ad- 
minister justice and maintain truth; and with purity, with honesty, with piety 
and patriotism like his honored predecessor, let him accomplish the great and 
delicate work that yet remains to be done, and to be a benefit to the land. 
E-emember the widow and the fatherless, oh Thou who art the widow's God and 
Father of the fatherless. Have them in Thy holy keeping, and wipe their 
tears away; and let them be cherished by the sympathies and prayers of a grate- 
ful people. We ask Thy tender mercy in behalf of Thy servant, the Secretary 
of State. Oh! Lord, heal his wounds, make his broken bones rejoice, raise him 
up from the bed of weakness whereon he lies, and let his counsel yet be given 
to his country, and his life be spared to her services ; and, oh Lord, let thy bless- 
ing be on the land in all its beauty and glory. Let our father's God be our 
God, and never in all its after history let the least vestige of treason or of 
slavery do anything to dishonor God or man, or rest as a dark curse upon us. 
But let the whole country be the home of freedom, of intelligence, of true and 
pure Christianity — a beacon light among the nations of the earth, and a great 
benefactor to the people. Hear this our prayer. Let Thy blessing be upon us 
all ; forgive our sins, and graciously hear, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
to whom with the Holy Ghost shall be honor and glory, world without end. 
Amen. 



Rabbi Isaacs, of the Broadway Tabernacle, then followed, 
and read the following selections from the Holy Scriptures : 

Remember, Lord, Thy tender mercies and Thy loving kindness ; for they 
are eternal. Grant us to be among those who die by Thy hand, Lord ! those 
who die by old age, whose lot is eternal life; yea, who enjoy even here Thy 
hidden treasures. His soul shall dwell at ease, and his seed shall inherit the 



177 

land. Therefore will we not fear, though the earth be overturned and though 
the mountains be hurled in the midst of the seas. 

He redeemeth thy life from destruction ; He crowneth thee with loving kind- 
ness and tender mercies. Wherefore doth living man complain, he who can 
master his sins? Small and great are there; and the servant is free from his 
master. For He remembered that they were but flesh ; a wind that passeth 
away and cometh not again. All flesh shall perish together, and man shall re- 
turn unto dust — who rejoice even to exultation and are glad when they find a 
grave. 

And such a frail mortal shall be more just than God? Shall man be more 
pure than his Maker ? In God I will praise His word; in the Lord, I will praise 
His word. Man is like to vanity ; his days are as a shadow of a thing that 
passeth away. Be kind, Lord, unto those that are good, and unto them that 
are upright in their hearts. Let the pious exult in glory ; let them sing aloud 
upon their couches. Then shall Thy light break forth as in the morning, and 
Thy health shall spring forth speedily, and Thy righteousness shall precede 
Thee ; the glory of the Lord shall bo thy reward. The Lord shall preserve thee 
from all evil. He shall preserve thy soul. 

Behold, the keeper of Israel doth neither slumber nor sleep. The Eternal 
killeth and maketh alive ; He bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up. 
Wilt Thou not turn, and revive us, that we may rejoice in Thee ? Let us, there- 
fore, trust in the Lord ; for with the Lord is mercy, and with Him is plenteous 
redemption. 

One generation passeth away and another generation cometh; but the earth 
abideth forever. For the word of the Lord is upright, and all His works are 
done in faithfulness. The dust shall return to the earth as it was, and the spirit 
shall return unto God who gave it. His seed shall be mighty upon earth ; the 
generation of the upright shall be blessed. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath 
taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. 

And as for him, righteousness shall precede him and form steps for his way. 

Ye are blessed of the Eternal, who made heaven and earth. 

The Rabbi then made the following prayer : 

Thou, whose attributes are omnipotence and immutability, mighty and in- 
visible, Thine eye unseen, and Thy direction unknown, guides ; Thy mercy un- 
bounded, upholds ; our God, our Father. From hearts penetrated by grief, we 
pray ; oppressed by the weight of our feelings, bruised in spirit, we most 
earnestly implore Thee, visit us not in Thine anger, nor chastise us according to 
our works. Enter not into judgment with us, look not to our iniquities. 
As frail, erring creatures, in faltering accents we confess our guilt. Who 
can be justified before Thy immaculate purity ? In humble and reveren- 
tial awe, we approach Thee, invoking Thee to inspire us with a proper 
spirit and temper of heart and mind under the powers of Thy providence. God 
of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, millions of beings Tliy will has created 
this day fall prostrate at Thy throne, offering the overflowing of their hearts 
and tiieir resignation to Thy will, as the homage of their adoration. The in- 
12 



178 

habitants of this land are over-burdened with grief. The good being who, like 
Aaron of old, "stood between the living and the dead," so that the war which 
decimated the land might cease, alas ! he is no more. Thy servant, Abraham 
Lincoln, has, without a warning, been summoned before Thy august presence. He 
has served the people of his afflicted land faithfully, zealously, honestly, and, we 
would fain hope, in accordance with Thy supreme will. that " his righteous- 
ness may precede him and form steps for his way" to the heavenly abode of 
bliss ; that Thy angels of mercy may be commissioned to convey his soul to the 
spot reserved for martyred saints ; that the suddenness with which one of the 
worst of beings deprived him of life may atone for any errors which he may 
have committed. Almighty God ! every heart is pierced by anguish — every 
countenance furrowed with grief, at our separation from one we revered and 
loved. We beseech Thee, in this period of our sorrow and despondency, to 
Boothe our pains and calm our griefs ; and, as in days of old, before the sun of 
Eli went down. Thou didst cause that of Samuel to beam upon Israel, so may 
it be Thy divine will, as the sun of our deeply lamented Abraham Lincoln had 
scarcely set, and darkness covered the people, that the sun of Andrew Johnson, 
which has burst upon the gloom, may shed its brilliant rays as sparkling it is 
borne amid purity and innocence. Our Father who art in Heaven, show us 
this kindness, so that our tears may cease to depict our sorrow and give place 
to the joyful hope that, through Thy goodness, peace and concord may supersede 
war and dissension, and our beloved Union, restored to its former tranquility, 
may be enabled to carry out Thy wish for the benefit and the happiness of 
humanity. We pray Thee, do this ; if not for our sakes, for the sake of our 
little ones unsullied by sin, who lisp Thy holy name ; with hands uplifted, with 
the importunity of spotless hearts, they re-echo our supplication. Let the past 
be the end of our sorrow, the future the harbinger of peace and salvation to all 
who seek Thee in truth. Amen. 

Rev. Dr. Osgood then recited the following ode for the fu- 
neral of Abraham Lincoln, by W. C. Bryant : 

Oh, slow to smite and swift to spare, 

Gentle, and merciful, and just! 
Who in the fear of God did'st bear 

The sword of power — a nation's trust. 

In sorrow by thy bier we stand, 

Amid the awe that hushes all. 
And speak the anguish of a land 

That shook with horror at thy falL 

Thy task is done — the bond are free; 

We bear thee to an honored grave, 
Whose noblest monument shall be 

The broken fetters of the slave. 



179 

Pure was thy life ; its bloody close 

Hath placed thee with the sons of light, 

Among the noble host of those 

Who perished in the cause of right. 

THE BENEDICTION. 

At the conclusion, the chairman announced that the Most 1 
Reverend Archbishop McCloskey was so fatigued from his / 
long attendance in the funeral cortege that he was unable to be ' 
present to pronounce the closing benediction ; the venerable 
prelate's absence would be filled by Professor Hitchcock. 

The funeral train left the city of New York at 4 o'clock, 
April 25th, Hundreds of thousands were in attendance. As 
the cars moved out, two dense lines were on either side. Men 
and women wept like children. The lame and crippled had 
hobbled to the depot, and merchants and mechanics, lawyers, 
doctors, and ministers, and the entire population stood with 
uncovered heads as the sacred ashes were borne onward. New 
York was bowed down with grief for the loss of the murdered 
martyr President. At the way stations — at Manhattanville, 
Yonkers, Dobbs's Ferry, Tarrytown, and Sing-Sing — large 
crowds of people were waiting, and gave evidence of their 
deep grief. The men remained uncovered, and the women 
looked sorrowfully at the fleeting cortege containing the loved 
and lost. 

At Yonkers was a beautiful flag, with the inscription, " Yonk- 
ers mourns with the nation." The women of this place were 
greatly affected, and waved their handkerchiefs while the tears 
fell down their cheeks. 

At Irvington about 7,000 people were assembled. The sta- 
tion was beautifully draped, with the inscriptions, " The hon- 
ored dead," and " We mourn the nation's loss." Sadness was 
depicted on every countenance. 

At Tarrytown, the train passed under the drooping arch 
made of American flags. There were beautiful inscriptions on 
the depot. Twenty-four young ladies, dressed in white, were 
standing under the dome, made of our country's flag, studded 
with flowers and draped with black velvet. The large crowd 
of spectators looked sad and mournful. 



180 

At Sing-Sing there was an immense assemblage. The train 
passed under an arch eighteen feet from base to base, and four 
feet thick, made of alternate stripes of black and white muslin, 
and the verges covered with black velvet. It was covered with 
evergreens, and on the top, in the centre, was a statue of the 
Goddess of Liberty, robed in wiiite, and a chaplet of evergreens 
around her neck. In large black letters on either side was the 
inscription, "We mourn our country's loss." Many other mot- 
toes were conspicuous, among them, " He died for Truth, Jus- 
tice, and Mercy." 

At Peekskill great crowds were assembled. The depot was 
heavily draped. In the centre was a portrait of the President, 
encircled with roses and tassels of red, white, and blue. A 
company of firemen, and the Highland Grays, a military organ- 
ization of boys, marched around, preceded by drooping flags. 

At Garrison's Landing, opposite West Point, Gen. Galium 
and staff, and all the College Professors, with three companies 
of Cadets, numbering about 1,000, came across the Hudson to 
meet and greet the funeral cortege. A very large concourse of 
people were also present, who evinced their sorrow for the dead. 

At Cold Spring a mournful crowd stood around a raised 
platform draped in black. In the centre was a young lady 
dressed as the Goddess of Liberty, with a black veil over her 
face, and holding, as she knelt, our country's flag in her hand. 
On her right was a boy kneeling, dressed as a soldier, and on 
the left, a boy kneeling, dressed as a sailor The depot was 
handsomely draped. 

At Fishkill a crowd of people lined both sides of the track. 
The depot was heavily draped. In the centre, surrounded by ever- 
green, was the motto, " In God we trust." Opposite Fishkill, 
across the Hudson, is Newburg, where flags were flying at half- 
mast, thus adding to the universal grief. From the very house 
where General Washington had his headquarters in Revolution- 
ary days, when George the Third enslaved us with British bay- 
onets, could be seen floating the Stars and Stripes, drooped and 
draped in memory of our assassinated chief. Thus is entwined 
the sacred history of the Father of His Country and the sa- 
viour of His Country. 

At Poughkeepsie an immense assemblage greeted the train ; 



181 

the men with heads uncovered, the women and children liaving 
miniature mourning flags. A committee of ladies asked per- 
mission to place a wreath of roses on the martyr's coffin, which 
was granted; Mrs. Prof. Eastman, Mrs. Gen. Davis, Mrs. Mayor 
Irving, Mrs. James Winslow, Mrs. D. Harvey, and the Misses 
Van Kleck, entered the car and fulfilled their holy mission. 
The National Business College, Professor Eastman leading, 
had 1,000 pupils formed in line, with uncovered heads. The 
splendid College Band played a solemn air. Minute guns 
were fired during the fifteen minutes' stay; and also, during the 
time, a number of ladies passed through the car containing the 
President and his little son Willie. 

At Strasburg a beautiful circle of light was displayed, and 
a large assemblage was standing on the platform. 

At Rhinebeck, crowds were assembled with torches. A band 
was on the verandah of the hotel, playing appropriate airs. 

At Barrytown a procession with lighted torches and drooped 
banners were marching. 

At Tivolia the people were assembled in large groups, with 
lighted lamps. The depot was draped, and flags drooping. 
Some fine residences near Tivolia were handsomely illuminated 
and festooned with flags. 

At Catskill large bonfires were lighted, and crowds of peo- 
ple were present. The United States vessels in the river had 
their flags draped at half-mast. 

At Hudson a large assemblage was gathered. The Hudson 
House and American Hotel were illuminated and draped in 
mourning. Minute guns were fired. 

At East Albany, Gen. Rathbone and staff, the military and 
civic organizations, and a vast concourse of people were assem- 
bled at the depot. Thousands of lighted torches, and banners 
draped in mourning, made the scene impressive. The people 
flocked around the car containing the President's remains, 
seeking to get a glimpse of the coffin. The depot was heavily 
draped. Conspicuous was a magnificent American flag twen- 
ty-five feet long and eight feet wide, on which was elaborately 
worked thirty-four stars, all surrounded by black drapery. 



182 



FUNERAL HONORS AT ALBANY, NEW YORK. 

The spectacle presented in Albany, Wednesday, the 25th of 
April, was, in the higliest degree, solemn and imposing. Thou- 
sands from the surrounding cities and villages — from distant 
portions of the State — from Vermont and Massachusetts — came 
in to pay the last tribute of respect to the revered dead. Every 
train and boat and omnibus was crowded — every avenue lead- 
ing to the city was thronged with vehicles. Thousands viewed 
the remains during the latter part of the night and the earlier 
hours of morning ; while before nine o'clock in the forenoon, 
State street, from its foot to the Capitol, was a solid mass of 
humanity. 

Arrived at the Park, the gate at tlie front entrance was 
opened, and the cortege conveyed the remains to the Assembly 
Chamber, which was tastefully draped. 

The Assembly Rooms in tlie Capitol were visited by 
thousands of people while the remains lay in state. The degree 
of feeling and sympathy manifested has never had a parallel. 
Voices were hushed and hearts beat heavily as the people 
pressed forward. The silence of the grave reigned. The 
gazers looked sorrowfully on the cold and sacred clay with 
throbbing hearts. They felt in their inmost soul as if they had 
lost their dearest household treasure. Many eyes were drowned 
with tears, as they looked on the face of the great martyr. 
Strong men wept like children as they witnessed tlie solemn 
train and listened to the wailing notes of tlic deatli dirge. 
Even the most indiifcrent felt that it was not merely a Ruler 
but a Friend whom the people had lost. 

The city was draped in sable, and everywhere were seen re- 
mi^idcrs of the sadness pervading the hearts of the people. The 
Assembly room, where the remains lay, was most appropriately 
decorated. Albany deeply sympathizes in the Nation's grief. 

Among the touching and suggestive tokens of sorrow at 
Albany wci-e the mottoes inscribed on public buildings and 
private mansions. 



183 

The following was suspended over the Speaker's chair : 

I have an oath registered in Heaven to preserve, protect, and defend the 
Government. 

— Lincoln. 

The State Geological Rooms were draped and festooned, 
with this sentiment displayed in large letters : 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

His faithful heart the bulwark of the Nation. The Nation erects his tomb iu 
her heart of hearts. His greatness she admires. His goodness commands her 
eternal love and admiration. 

Major General Robinson's headquarters were ornamented 
with a variety of flags and drapery, with the following in large 
letters, reaching the entire length of the building : 

The great heart of the Nation throbs heavily at the Portals of his Grave. 

Suspended in front of the offices of the Assessor and Col- 
lector of Internal Revenue was the following : 

With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, 
as God gives to see the right, let us strive to finish the work we are in. 

— A. Lincoln. 

On business and private houses were read the following : 

The eye of the sage and the heart of the brave 
Are liidden and lost in the depth of the grave. 

All joy is darkened; the mirth of the land is gone. 

And the mourners go about the streets. 

And l!ie victory that day was turned into mourning unto all the people. 

His life was gentle, and the elements were so mixed in him that Nature 
might stand up and say to all the world — TUis was a man. 

Washington, the Father of his Country; Lincoln, the Saviour of his Coun- 
try. 

With the words : 

The Martyr to Liberty. 

The mournful scenes of the day made a profound and abiding 



184 

impression upon the people. They tended to chasten and sanc- 
tify the public grief, increased the popular reverence for the 
murdered President, and enshrined his memory more deeply and 
sacredly in the popular affections. They breathed into all 
hearts something of that earnest yet magnanimous spirit that 
made Mr. Lincoln's last moments so glorious. 

From Albany to Buffalo, the funeral cars passed through the 
populous and central part of the Empire State, and at every 
point symbols of sorrow were displayed. On the hills and in 
the valleys, groups assembled, with flags draped in mourning, 
and other emblems of sorrow, and saluted with solemn rever- 
ence the passing train. 

At Schenectady, Utica, Rome, Oneida, Syracuse, the city of 
Rochester, and the smaller towns, great crowds were assembled, 
and draped flags were waved, funeral dirges were sung, bon- 
fires blazed, bells tolled, minute guns were fired, and every 
emblem of sorrow manifested. One of the most beautiful and 
affecting scenes was that of the farmers and their families, 
gathered in groups around bonfires, and waiting in the silent 
hour of the night to add their tokens of grief for the lamented 
dead. 

BUFFALO. 

The funeral train reached Buffalo on Thursday morning, the 
27 til of April. The body was taken from the funeral car and 
borne by soldiers up into St. James's Hall, and deposited on the 
dais, in the presence of the accompanying officers, the guards 
of honor, and the Union Continentals, commanded by N. K. 
Hall. 

The remains were placed under a crape canopy, extending 
from the ceiling to the floor. The space was lit by a large 
chandelier. In the gallery, outside the canopy, was the Buffalo 
St. Cecilia Society, an amateur American music association, 
who, as the remains were brought in, sang with deep pathos 
the dirge, " Rest, spirit, rest," affecting every licart and moving 
many to tears. Tlie society then placed an elegantly formed 
harp, made of choice wliite flowers, at the head of tlie coffin, as 
a tribute from them to the honored dead. Shortly after this 



185 

the public were admitted. Ex-President Fillmore was among 
the civilians escortin,^ the remains to St. James's Hall. Also 
Company D, Seventy-fourth Regiment, Captain .J. C. Bowles. 

The remains were visited through the day, from half-past 
nine this morning until eight this evening, by an immense num- 
ber of persons. 

During the morning there was placed at the foot of the cof- 
fin an anchor of white camelias, from the ladies of the Unita- 
rian Church of Buffalo. A cross of white flowers was also laid 
upon the coffin. At the request of Major General Dix and 
others, the officers of the St. Cecilia Society repeated the dirge, 
which was sung with solemn and touching effect. 

At all the towns and stations between Buffalo and Cleve- 
land, through which the train passed in the night, multitudes 
had assembled, some bearing lanterns and mourning flags in 
their hands, while on their houses was plainly discernable the 
usual drapery and mottoes expressive of tiie prevailing grief. 

At Dunkirk the platform was elaborately decorated. Fes- 
toons of evergreens extended all along the eaves of the struc- 
ture, while from the ceiling gracefully drooped white and black 
folds. The background, covered with flags interlaced with 
crape, completed the artistical arrangement. But the cliief fea- 
ture was the group of thirty-six young ladies, representing the 
States of the Union. They were dressed in white, each with 
a broad black scarf resting on the shoulder, and holding in 
the hand a national flag. The tolling of bells, the solemn music 
of an instrumental band, and the firing of minute guns contrib- 
uted to the interest of the scene. 

CEREMONIES AT CLEVELAND. 

On Friday morning, the 28th of April, the funeral cortege 
reached the city of Cleveland. The remains, as they passed 
from the Empire State of the Union into the Empire State of 
the West, were received and escorted to Cleveland by the fol- 
lowing officers and eminent citizens of Ohio, viz: Governor 
Brough and staff ; General Cowan, Adjutant General ; General 
Barlow, Quartermaster General ; Surgeon General Barr, and 
Colonel Maxwell. Also Major General Hooker, commanding 



186 

the Department of the Ohio, with his staff, as follows : Colonel 
Swords, Lieutenant Colonel Simpson, Lieutenant Colonel La- 
throp, Major McFeely, Major Bannister, and Captain Taylor. 
Also United States Senator Sherman, Hon. S, Galloway, Hon. 
0. Waters, and Major Montgomery. Also the following gen- 
tlemen, committee from Cleveland : Hon. R. P. Spaulding, ex- 
Governor David Tod, Thomas Jones, Jr., Colonel Anson Stager, 
Amasa Stone, Jr., Hon. H. B. Payne, Hon. John A. Foot, Hon. 
H. V. Wilson, Stillman Witt, Ansel Roberts, William Bing- 
ham, Hon. W. B. Castle, Charles Hickox, John Martin, Hon. 
W. Collins, H. N. Johnson, Dr. G. C. E. Weber, Dr. Proctor 
Tiiayer, H. B. Hurlbut, Jacob Hovey, and James Warsick. 

The importance and solemnity of the occasion was evidently 
appreciated by all. The dense crowds that lined the streets 
from the Euclid street depot to the public square, the numerous 
badges of mourning worn, the heavily draped buildings, and 
the uniform stillness and decorum of the immense gathering of 
people testified to the respect and love borne to the deceased 
by the people of Cleveland and the surrounding country. The 
immense crowd was hourly added to by the trains and steamers 
arriving from different points. 

The scene when the procession started was very solemn and 
impressive. A slight rain fell, falling like tears on the remains 
of the good man in whose honor the crowd had gathered, but 
not enough to be heeded by the people assembled. The street 
was lined with a continuous wall of people, and the yards and 
houses were also crowded. The long perspective of Euclid 
street stretched away in unrivalled beauty, and the procession, 
with its solid column, great length, and imposing display, made 
up a scene never equalled in Cleveland. 

The coffin was placed in a hearse, the roofing of which was 
covered with tiie national flag, with black plumes and otherwise 
tastefully and appropriately adorned. The military escort em- 
braced Major General Hooker and staff, and Governor Brough, 
of Ohio, and staff, and the escort and civic guard of honor was 
followed by the United States civil officers, veteran soldiers, 
members of the City Council and city officers of Cleveland and 
other cities, members of the bar, the Board of Trade, Knights 
Templar, the Orders of Masons and Odd Fellows, Temperance 



187 

Societies, Fenian Brotherhood, St. Vincent's Society, the Ger- 
man Benevolent Society, the Equal Rights League, &c., and all 
the benevolent and other associations and citizens. 

The procession embraced all conditions of the people, with- 
out distinction of party or religion, and it presented a fine 
appearance as it moved through the streets of this truly beau- 
tiful city, from Euclid street to Erie, down Erie to Superior, 
and thence to the Park. The sidewalks were densely crowded 
with mournful-looking spectators, while thousands of persons 
beheld the cortege from the steps and windows of the beautiful 
residences which lino tlie entire route. Emblems of mourning 
were evevywliere prominent, with expressive mottoes. 

In the Park had been erected a building especially for the 
reception of the remains, to which they were conveyed. The 
coffin rested on the dais, about two feet above the floor. On 
the four corners stood columns, supporting a canopy. The col- 
umns were draped and wreathed with evergreens and white 
flowers in tlie most beautiful manner — black cloth falling as 
curtains, and fringed with silver, caught and looped back to 
these columns. The floor of the dais was covered with flowers, 
and a figure of the Goddess of Liberty was placed at the head 
of the coffin. 

After tlie coffin was opened, the Right Rev. Charles Pettit 
Mcllvaine, Bishop of the Diocese of Ohio, advanced to the 
coffin, and read from the burial service of the Episcopal Church: 

I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord : he that believeth in me, 
though he were dead, yet shall he live ; and whosoever liveth and believeth in 
me shall never die. 

We brought nothing into the world, and it is certain we can carry nothing 
out. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away ; blessed be the name of 
the Lord. 

Man that is born of a woman hath but a short time to live, and is full of 
misery. He cometh up, and is cut down, like a flower ; he fleeth as it were a 
shadow, and never continueth in one stay. 

In the midst of life we are in death; of whom may we seek for succor but 
of thee, Lord, who for our sins art justly displeased? 

The Bishop then ofi"ered an appropriate prayer, in the course 
of which he asked the blessing of ticaven on the immediate 
l\imily of the deceased, and a sanctification of the event which 



188 

had called the nation to mourn to the good of him who had 
succeeded to the chief magistracy. He then read a part of the 
funeral service of the Episcopal church, slightly altering the 
text to suit the occasion. These services were intensely sol- 
emn, and moved many of the listeners to tears. 

The number who witnessed the remains of the President 
during the day was one hundred and eighty a minute. Two 
rows of spectators were constantly passing, one on each 
side of the coffin. The lid was freshly covered with flowers 
in the form of harps, crosses, and bouquets, gathered in the hot- 
houses of Cleveland, and laid upon the coffin by ladies repre- 
senting the Soldiers' Relief Association. 

As the funeral pageant closed, and the remains of the illus- 
trious dead passed away, the people of Cleveland responded to 
these well chosen words of their public organ : " Nothing of 
him now is left us but his shining example — nothing but a mem- 
ory which is blessed — the memory of the just. 

" The broad prairie, from whose boundless generosity he 
drew inspiration, opens its bosom to receive him. Moisten, 
sweet dews, the light sod that covers him ; sing, gentle breezes, 
his triumphant requiem ; weave, gentle flowers, a perpetual 
chaplet above him.'' 

FUNERAL HONORS AT COLUMBUS, OHIO. 

The remains of President Lincoln reached Columbus, the 
capital of the State, on Saturday morning, the 29th of April. 
Governor Brough had, in an official order, indicated the time and 
manner of the honors to be rendered to the illustrious dead in 
Ohio, as follows : 

General HEADauARTEES, State or Ohio, A. G. 0., 

Columbus, A2)7-il 21. 
General Order No. 4. 

The remains of the late President Lincoln, in transit to their final resting 
place at, Springfield, Illinois, will arrive at Cleveland on Friday, the 28th inst., 
7.30 A. M. Leaving Cleveland at midnight on the same day, they will arrive 
at Columbus at 7.30 of Saturday, the 29th inst., and will leave Columbus for 
Indianapolis, via the Great Central Railroad, at 8 o'clock P. M. of the same 
day. 

A national salute of thirty-six guns will be fired at Cleveland at 6.30 on the 



189 

morning of the 28th inst,. and one gun at the expiration of each half hour 
during the day until sunset. 

A similar salute will be fired at Columbus on the morning of the 29th inst., 
and during the day. At Columbus the remains will be deposited during the 
day in the rotunda of the Capitol. The rotunda and the building will be ap- 
propriately draped in mourning, and such arrangements made for the ingress 
and egress of the public as will effectually prevent disturbance or confusion. A 
sufficient military guard will be stationed in the building and grounds. Maj. 
General Joseph Hooker, U. S. Vols., Commanding Northern Department, will 
have charge of the train through the State. The procession to escort the 
remains from and to the depot at Cleveland and Columbus will be organized 
and controlled by officers detailed for that purpose by Major General Hooker. 
As a mark of respect for the memory of our late Chief Magistrate, it is sug- 
gested tliat business be generally suspended during the day on the 2Sth inst., 
at Cleveland, and at Columbus on the 29th inst. ; that all the flags upon public 
buildings, and upon shipping in our harbors and elsewhere, be displayed at half- 
mast, and suitably draped in mourning, during the time when the remains are 
in the State ; and that our citizens generally unite in manifesting, in every 
suitable manner, the deep grief which rests upon their hearts under this great 
national bereavement. 

The people of the State are invited to be present at Cleveland or Columbus, 
as may be most convenient to them, and unite in paying the last sad offices of 
respect to the remains of our beloved President, who has sealed his devotion to 
the holy cause of libert}'' with his life-blood, though he still lives, and will ever 
live, in the affectionate remembrance of a patriotic people. Let them come and 
gaze upon his murdered body, and there renew their vows of allegiance, and 
swear anew eternal hostility to every enemy of the country. 
Bv order of the Governor: 

B. R. COWEN, 
Adjutant General of Ohio. 

The train entered the Union depot amid the ringing of muf- 
fled bells. An immense crowd of spectators was congregated 
in the vicinity of the depot, together with the marshal and his 
aides, the carriages for the escort, and the military and civic 
bodies that were to take part in the solemnities. At a given 
signal, one of the bands struck up a dirge, and the coffin was 
taken from the car and laid in the hearse by a portion of the 
Veteran Reserve Corps, the other Veteran Reserves marching 
by its side, with drawn sabres, attended by the pall-bearers and 
military guard of honor. 

The pall-bcarers were Dr. John Andrews, Robert Niel, F. C. 
Kelton, John Field, Augustus Piatt, Christian Heyl, E. W. 
Gwynne, W. B. Hubbard, Judge Taylor, John Brooks, Wm. 
B. Thrall, D. W. Deshler, L. Goodale, Jos. R. Swan, Wm. T. 



190 

Martin, Wm. M. Awl, G. W. Manypenny, John M. Walcott, 
F. Stewart, John Noble, F. Jaeger, Sen., and Amos S. Ramsey. 

Slowly and solemnly the escort, headed bj General Hooker 
and staff, and Governor Brough and staff, passed to the Capi- 
tol entrance, and reverently the coffin was lowered from the 
shoulders of the veterans to the flowery bed awaiting it. The 
officers named, with their attendants. Major General Hunter 
and staff, and the general officers in charge of the corpse from 
Washington, General Wager Swayne and staff, the pall-bear- 
ers, and members of committees, assumed tlieir proper places 
around the catafalque, with uncovered heads, the guard of honor 
from the Veteran Reserve Corps formed in line on each side, 
and as soon as the corpse was in place. Rev. Mr. Felton offered 
an appropriate prayer. 

The rotunda of the Capitol, so well calculated for display, so 
grand in its loftiness, was transformed into a gorgeous tomb. 
The grand column of light streaming down from the lofty dome 
made distinct and impressive each feature of the solemn scene 
below. There was no unwonted display to mar the solemnity, 
but beautifully and simply grand as was the character of him 
whose mortal remains were to repose therein, the rotunda of 
Ohio's Capitol emblemed the sorrow of Ohio's people. 

The coffin rested on a mound of moss, in which were dotted 
the choicest flowers. At the head of the coffin rested a large 
floral wreath, while directly behind the latter were flowers in 
glass and cliina vessels, contributed by ladies. At the corners 
of the platform, on the floor, were large vases, also filled with 
flowers. The walls were adorned with a naval picture repre- 
senting a scene in the life of Commodore Perry, and with 
banners carried by Ohio troops in the recent war, torn and rid- 
dled by bullets in many a conflict. 

By actual count it was found that over eight thousand passed 
in and out every hour from half after nine until four o'clock, and 
making due allowances, it is thought that fifty thousand people 
viewed the remains in that time. 

For more than six hours a steady stream of humanity poured 
through the channel, all eager to gaze at the sainted martyr on 
his bier. 

Long before the hour appointed for the delivery of the funeral 



191 

oration in the afternoon, the east terrace of the State House 
was crowded with men and women who had gatliered to hear 
the lessons which miglit be suggested from the life and death of 
a martyred President. Upon the platform, at three o'clock, 
appeared Major General Hunter, Major Gen. Hooker, Major 
General Barnard, Brigadier General Townsend, Brigadier 
General McCuUum, Colonel Swords, Colonel Simpson, Colonel 
Lathrop, Captain Taylor, Hon. T. B. Shannon of Cal., Hon. 
T. W. Terry of Michigan, Hon. Mr. Clarke of Kansas, the 
orator, Hon. Job E. Stevenson of Chillicothe, Reverends E. P. 
Goodwin and C. E. Felton of Columbus. After appropriate 
music by military bands, and the singing of a hymn by a choir 
under the direction of J. A. Scarritt, a prayer, impressive in 
thought and earnest in manner and word, was offered b}"^ the 
pastor of the Congregational Church of Columbus, Mr. Good- 
win. A solemn hymn was then sung by the choir. 
Hon. J. E. Stevenson delivered the following address : 

Ohio mourns! America mourns ! The civilized world will mourn the cruel 
death of Araham Lincoln — the brave, the wise, the good — the bravest, wisest, 
best of men. History alone can measure and weigh his worth. But we, in 
parting from his mortal remains, may indulge the fulness of our hearts in a few 
broken words of his life, and his death, and his fame — his noble life and 
martyr's death and matchless fame. A western farmer's son, self-made, in 
manhood he won by sterling qualities of head and heart the public confidence, 
and was entrusted with the people's power. Growing with his State, he became 
leader, President. He disbelieved the threats of traitors, and sought to serve 
his term in peace. 

When clouds of civil war darkened the land, the President prayed for peace, 
and long opposed the war ; and only when the war became furious did he stem 
the elements, and during the four years of war which raged the President was 
tried as man was never tried before. Oh! with what a load of toil and care 
has he come, with a steady step, through the valley and shadow of defeat over 
the bright mountains of victory, up to the sunlight plain of peace ; tried by 
dire disaster of Bull Pv.un, where volunteer patriots met traitors ; at Fredericks- 
burg, where courage contended with nature ; at Chancellorsville, that desperate 
venture in the swamps of the Chickahominy, where a brave army was buried 
in vain; by the siege of Charleston, the mockery of Richmond, and the dangers 
of Washington ; through all these trials the President stood firm, trusting in God, 
and while the people trusted in God and him, there were never braver men 
than the Union soldiers, in Grecian phalanx, Roman legion, nor braver ever 
bent the Saxon bow or bore the barbarian battle-axe, or set the lance in rest; 
none braver ever followed the Crescent and the Cross, or fought with Napoleon, 



192 

or Wellington, or Washington. Yet the Commander-in-Chief of the Union 
army and navy was worthy of the man filling for four years the foremost and 
most perilous post. Unfalteringly tried by good fortune, he saw the soldiers 
of the West recover the great valley and bring back to the Union the father 
of the waters and all his beautiful children. He saw the legions of Lee hunted 
from the heights of Gettysburg. He saw the flag of the free rise on Lookout 
Mountain and speed from the river to the sea, and rest over Sumter. He saw 
the star-spangled banner, lighted by the blaze of battle, bloom over Richmond, 
and he saw Lee surrender; yet he remained wise and modest, giving all the 
glory to God and our army and navy. Tried by civil affairs which would have 
tried the power and tested the virtue of Jefferson, Hamilton and Washington, 
he administered that so well, that after three years no man was found to take 
his place. He was re-elected, and the harvest of success came in so grandly 
that he might have said "Now, Lord, let thy servant depart in peace, for mine 
eyes have seen the glory." Yet he was free from weakness and vanity. Thua 
did he exhibit, on occasions, a due proportion of harmonious action, those car- 
dinal virtues, the trinity of true greatness, courage, wisdom, goodness to love, 
the right wisdom to know the right, and courage to do the right. Tried by 
those tests, and by the touchstone of success, he was the greatest of living men. 
He stood on the summit, his brow bathed in the beams of the rising sun of 
peace, singing in his heart the angelic song of "Glory to God in the highest, 
peace on earth, good-will to men." With charity for all, he had forgiven the 
people of the South, and might have forgiven their leaders, covering with the 
broad mantle of his charity their multitude of sins. But he is slain by 
slavery; that fiend incarnate did the deed! Beaten in battle, the leaders sought 
to save slavery by assassination. Their madness forced their destruction. 

Abraham Lincoln was the personification of mercy ; Andrew Johnson is the 
personification of justice. They have murdered mercy, and justice rules alone ; 
and the people, with one voice, pray to heaven that justice may be done. The 
mere momentum of our victorious armies will crush every rebel in arms, and 
then may our eyes behold the majesty of the law. They have appealed to the 
Bword. If they were tried by the law their crimes against humanity would 
doom them to death. The blood of thousands of murdered prisoners cries to 
Heaven; the shades of sixty-two thousand starved soldiers rise in judgment 
against them; the body of the murdered President condemns them. Some 
deprecate even vengeance. There is no room for vengeance. Ere long, before 
justice can have her perfect work, the material will be exhausted and the record 
closed. 

Some wonder why the South killed her best friend. Abraham Lincoln was 
the true friend of the people of the South, for he was their friend as Jesus is 
the friend of sinners — ready to save when they repent. He was not the friend 
of rebellion or slavery. He was their strongest foe, and therefore they slew 
him ; but in his death they die. The people have judged them, and they stand 
convicted with remorse and dismay, while the cause for which the President 
perished, sanctified by his blood, grows stronger and brighter. These are some 
of the consequences of the death of Mr. Lincoln. Ours is the grief; theirs is 
the loss, and his is the gain. He died for liberty and Union, and now he 



193 

wears the martyr's glorious crown. He is our crowned' President. While 
the Union survives, while the love of liberty warms the human heart, Abraham 
Lincoln will hold high rank among the immortal dead. The North needs no 
aid from rebel hands to help the Union. The Union needs no improvement. It 
has not been made by man. It was created by God. It is vital. If it has 
wounds in the members of its body, they will heal and leave no scar, without 
the opiate of compromise with treason. * * 4;- * -^g cannot 
afford to sacrifice one jot or tittle of principle for conciliation. We had better 
bear all the ills of war than fly to the corruption of an unprincipled peace. 
But no conciliation is needed. Let the prodigals feed on the husks till they 
come in repentance and ask to be received in their father's house — not as the 
equal* to their faithful brethren, but on a co-equal with their former servants. 
Then we can consider their position and discuss the question, not of the recon- 
struction of the Union, but of the formation of free States from the national 
domain. Until then let the sword which reclaimed their territory rule it, tem- 
pered by national laws. Some say that except by conciliation there can be no 
true peace by conquest. On the contrary, there is no enduring peace but the 
peace that is conquered. The peace of France is a conquered peace; the peace 
of England is conquered and conquered again ; the peace of our fathers is a 
conquered peace; the peace of the world is a conquered peace, and thanks be 
to God our peace is to be conquered ; and, therefore, a lasting peace. For a 
hundred years shall the people enjoy liberty and Union in peace and security. 
The nation shall be revived through all its members by the hand of free labor. 
Prosperity shall fill and overflow the land, roll along the railways, thrill the 
electric wire, pulsate on the rivers, blossom on the lakes, and whiten the sea; 
and the imperial face of the public, the best and strongest government on 
earth, will be a monument of the glory of Abraham Lincoln ; while over and 
above all shall rise and swell the great dome of his fame. 

The clioir then sang Bryant's funeral ode for the burial of 
Abraham Lincoln, when the benediction was pronounced and 
an air played by the band. 

The closing scene at Columbus was one of impressive beauty 
and solemnity. The sun, setting in peculiar glory, was shed- 
ding his golden light over the city, and giving to the closing 
funeral scenes a solemn interest. A cluster of ladies entered 
the rotunda, and in tearful silence sat near the catafalque. The 
guard of honor, keeping faithful vigilance over their sacred 
treasure, and waiting the moment of departure, were walking 
in slow and solemn tread around the platform on which rested 
the remains of the honored dead. Flowers, and other expres- 
sive symbols of sorrow, surrounded the coffin, adorned with its 
gorgeous ornaments. Through the dome of the magnificent 
capitol the soft, lingering rays of the departing sun streamed 

13 



194 

down, with a mild and half-dimmed radiance, covering the scene 
within the rotunda with an attractive and subduing aspect. In 
the midst of this picture of beauty, and almost painful silence. 
Governor Broughand a few others entered, and, with the guard 
of honor, and the group of ladies, followed the remains out of 
the rotunda into the spacious grounds that surround the capitol. 
As the cortege passed out of the door, a baud struck up the 
grand historic tune of " Old Hundred," followed by a national 
salute from the military, and thus to the sound of inspiring 
music and minute guns was the remains of the illustrious dead 
borne to the funeral car, and left the capital of Ohio at the set- 
ting of the sun. 

As the arrangements made at Washington prevented the 
funeral cortege from passing through Cincinnati, the great 
commercial metropolis of Ohio and tlie West, the Mayor, Com- 
mon Council, and several hundred eminent citizens of that city 
were present at Columbus, to mingle in the ceremonies and to 
add to the honors paid to the illustrious and departed Presi- 
dent by the great State of Ohio. 

The route from Columbus to Indianapolis, in its entire length, 
was passed over in the darkness of the night. This, however, 
did not diminish the spontaneous tributes of honor. At all the 
stations, villages, and towns multitudes assembled to manifest 
in all appropriate symbols their sorrow, and to add their tears 
to the universal grief. There was a perfect torchlight along 
the whole route. Every farm-house had its bonfire in order 
to see the train. Nearly every town had arches built over the 
track. 

At Urbana, a large and beautiful town in central Ohio, 
some three thousand people were present. A large cross 
was on the platform, entwined with circling wreaths of 
evergreens, which were worked under direction of Mrs. 
Miles G. Williams, President of the Ladies Soldiers' Aid 
Society. From the top of the cross, and shorter arms, 
were hung illuminated colored transparencies. On the op- 
posite side of the track was an elevated platform, on which 
were forty gentlemen and ladies, who sung with pathetic 
sweetness the hymn entitled " Go to thy rest." The singers 
represented the Methodist, Baptist, Episcopalian, and Presby- 



195 

terian clmrches. Large bonfires made night light as day.' 
Minute guns were fired. Ten young ladies entered the car and 
strewed flowers on the martyr's bier. One of the ladies was 
so aifected that she cried and wept in great anguish. The 
scene was one of great beauty and efl'ect, and did credit to the 
good taste of the people of that town. 

At Piqua, ten thousand people assembled at the hour of 
midnight to honor the martyred President. They were seen in 
all directions, by the light of lamps, torches, and bonfires. The 
railroad station was adorned with Chinese lanterns and flags, 
in conjunction with dark mourning drapery. Thirty-six ladies 
in white, with black sashes, sang a plaintive tune, which 
brought tears from many eyes. The Troy band and the Piqua 
band played appropriate music, after which a delegation from 
the Methodist churches, under Rev. Granville (Col.) Moody, 
sung a hymn. Mr. Moody repeated the first line, when it was 
then sung by the entire choir. It was a scene such as is seldom 
witnessed. 

Richmond, Indiana, was reached by the train on Sunday 
morning, at three o'clock, and ten thousand people were 
assembled. Wreaths of flowers were brought by ladies, 
bearing the motto, " The nation mourns;^' and these floral 
gifts were laid upon the coffins of the President and little 
Willie. The train passed under an arched bridge, the abut- 
ments of which were trimmed with evergreens, dotted with 
white roses, and wreathed with mourning drapery. On this 
bridge was the representation of a coffin, covered with the na- 
tional flag ; a female figure was kneeling, and was in the act of 
weeping ; she represented the Genius of Liberty ; a soldier 
and a sailor at either side of the coffin completed the group. 
At Centreville, Germantown, and Cambridge, thousands of 
people were gathered. At Cambridge the train passed under 
an arch trimmed with evergreens, surmounted with a female 
figure, to represent the Genius of America weeping. At Dub- 
lin the train passed under an arch, thirty feet high, dotted with 
small United States flags. On the depot were set diff"erent pic- 
tures, wreathed with evergreens, representing Washington, Lin- 
coln, Grant, Sherman, Ellsworth, and others. At Knightstown 
were erected funeral arches at each end of the depot, and the 



196 

'building- was festooned witli the badges of sorrow, A choir 
chaunted a solemn and beautiful hymn as the train moved 
leisurely between the files of mourning citizens. 

At Charlotteville, chief among the procession at the depot 
was quite a large body of colored people. How fitting and 
sublime seemed the gospel declaration, as the Great Eman- 
cipator's coffin passed through a file of freemen, " Of one blood 
made He all nations of men.*' The brightest star in the im- 
mortal diadem that encircled the brows of Abraham Lincoln 
was his fiat to his country: " Be ye indeed free." 

FUNERAL HONORS AT INDIANAPOLIS. 

The State of Indiana, the early home of Mr. Lincoln, and 
its capital city, gave aifecting and universal evidence of the 
profound grief felt by the people. The train, bearing all that 
was mortal of the late President, arrived at Indianapolis on 
Sabbath morning at seven o'clock, the 30th of xVpril. It was 
escorted to the city by the following officers, citizens of the 
State, wlio had gone as a special committee to Richmond to re- 
ceive and conduct the remains to Indianapolis : 

Governor 0. P. Morton, Lieutenant Governor Conrad Baker, T. B. McCarty, 
Auditor of State ; John I. Morrison, Treasurer of State : D. R. "Williamson, At- 
torney General ; Laz Noble, Clerk of the Supreme Court ; Thomas A. Hen- 
dricks, U. S. Senator; Brigadier General Tom Bennet ; H. S. Lane, U. S. Sena- 
tor; G. S. Orth; Thomas N. Stillwell, M. C; David Kilgore, D. S. Gooding, 
D. C. Branham, J. Matson, Hon. John H. Farquhar, M. C, Henry Secrist, Gen. 
Colgrove, J. F. Kibby, T. J. Cason, J. L. Miller, M. C Culver, Colonel R. N. 
Hudson, Colonel R. W. Thomson, Colonel Oyler, General Dumont, M. C, John 
U. Petit, Joseph E. McDonald, General John Love, Thomas Whitesides, Jer. 
Sullivan, Colonel James Burgess, Colonel L. L. Shuler, H. C. Newcomb, Joseph 
J. Bingham, , Alfred Harrison, William Hannaman, James N. Tyner, Captain 
H. B. Hill, Captain Stansifer, J. Y. Allison, Colonel C. D. Murray, Colonel Ira 
Grover, Colonel D. G. Rose, Colonel W. H. J. Robinson, David McDonald, J. D. 
Howland, Judge C. A. Ray, Judge Blair, John Hannah, ex-Governor Dunning, 
Dr. Hendrix, Judge Gregory, J. H. McVey, E. J. Banta, D. E. Snyder, Charles 
F. Hoagate, R. N. Brown, R. B. Catherwood, E. W. Halford, Esq.. Wm. Wal- 
lace, E. H. Barry, Hon. A.H.Connor,.!. T.Wright, W. A. Bradshaw, J. J. Wright, 
Esq., E. W. Kimball, Esq., General Elliott, Major J. H. Lozier, .A.ndrew Wal- 
lace, J. C. New, Esq., W. H. English, Captain James Wilson, Mayor Caven and 
the Common Council, T. C. Philips, J. P. Luse, J. H. Jordan, M. C. Garber, W. 
S. Lingle, R. J. Ryan, C. S. Butterfield, J. K. English, W. R. Manlove, Dr. 
George W. Clippinger, Charles N. Todd, Rev. F. C. Holliday, Rev. J. V. R. 



197 

Miller, Rev. B. F. Foster, Rev. J. P, T. Ingraliam, Rev. Lr. Bowman, Rev. G. 
F. Marshall, Rev. 0. A. Burgess, Father Bessonies, Mr. Silvertborn of the Ev- 
ansvUle Journal, and Mr. Vv'estfall of the Terre JIaute Express. 

At the Union depot immense multitudes were assembled, 
and the military was drawn up, in open order, to receive the 
remains and escort tliem in solemn procession to tlie State 
House, Amid the sound of tolling: bells, and in falling rain, 
the procession moved in slow and solemn inarch to the capitol, 
while on the entire line of march the citizens thronged the side- 
walks, balconies, and house-tops, in deep sympathy with the 
solemn scene. The body, carried b}' the sergeants, was borne 
into the State House, and lay in state during the entire Sabbath. 
The enclosure of the State House Square was hung with 
wreatiis of arborvitce. At each corner on Washington street 
small arches, trimmed with evergreen, had been erected. The 
main entrance on Washington street was a structure of con- 
siderable size, combining quite a variety of styles of architec- 
ture ; it was about twenty-five feet high, forty feet in length, 
and twenty-four feet wide. Underneath was a carriage-way, 
twelve feet wide, with a six-feet passage way on either side. 
•The main pillars were fifteen feet high. Portraits of Grant, 
Sherman, Farragut, and Morton were suspended from the pillars, 
while on the pedestals at the top rested handsome busts of Wash- 
ington, Webster, Lincoln, and Clay. The entire structure was 
beautifully shrouded in black, and was relieved by evergreen 
garlands, with a fine display of flags. At the north side a 
simple draping of black and white had been erected. The 
pillars of the south front of the capitol were spirally covered 
with alternate white and black cloth, the latter edged with 
evergreens, while the coat of arms of the State was placed in 
the pediment. During the performance of an impressive 
funeral dirge, the tolling of bells, and the sounding of cannon, 
the cofiin was carried to the interior of the State House in the 
presence of the military and civic escort which had accom- 
panied the remains from Washington. Along the walls 
were suspended pictures of Washington, Lincoln, Johnson, 
Seward, Sheridan, Hovcy, Morton, Douglas, Sherman, Grant, 
Colonel Dick O'Neall, and Edward Everett. Busts of Wash- 
ington, Lincoln, Jackson, Webster, Clay, and Douglas were 



198 

placed at intervals, their brows bound with the ever-living 
laurel flowers, and evergreens everywhere literally entered 
into the artistic arrangements. Heavy black cloth was hung 
in the rotunda, looped at the pillars with large white tassels, 
while the surmounting of the interior dome, which formed 
loosely the hung canopy, was in black, with white cords and 
tassels, and ornamented with golden stars. Immediately beneath 
hung the chandelier, witli numerous burners, and from which a 
mellow light was shed upon the sombre scene. The platform 
was in the centre of the rotunda, under the chandelier. It 
was covered with fine black velvet, with silver fringe. On this 
the coffin was placed, surrounded by flowers, while white 
wreaths and floral crosses laid upon the lid. 

It was estimated that persons were passed through at the 
rate of one hundred and fifty per minute, and that fully one 
hundred thousand persons viewed the remains in the course of 
the day. 

All the public and private buildings of the city were 
draped in mourning, and on many of them beautiful, artistic 
devices were seen, and striking and suggestive mottoes were 
read. On one was this inscription, so historic and true of the 
departed President : " He sleeps in the blessing of the 'poor, 
ichose fetters God commanded Mm to hreah.'- On another was 
elegantly represented Grief, Hope, and Immortality, in festoons 
of black and white, with a beautiful embroidery of evergreen. 
On the hall of a benevolent organization was the suggestive 
and beautiful sentiment, " To live in hearts ice leave behind is 
not to die J'' 

No formal religious services were performed at the State 
House, but the clergy of the city preached discourses appro- 
priate to the solemn scenes of the day, and commemorative of 
the virtues and services of the late President. A pleasing in- 
cident of the Sabbath was the visit of five thousand Sunday 
School scholars to the State House, marshalled under the 
venerable Colonel James Blake, who, for forty years, had 
been a laborer in Sunday schools, to look for the first 
and last time on him whom they had learned to honor and 
love, and who, in public addresses, had advocated the noble 
cause of Sunday schools. Indiana never saw such a sight. 



199 

The world's history is Grablazoned by the examples of a few 
martyrs to tlie cause of liberty and religion, and sacred in the 
heart of Indiana is now added to the shining necrology 
the name of Abraham Lincoln, the murdered President of the 
United States of America. 

Governor Bramlette and other distinguished men from Ken- 
tucky came to Indianapolis to represent their State, and to tes- 
tify their sorrow for the death of the President. 

The City Councils of Cincinnati, Ohio, and Covington, Ky., 
also participated, as representative mourners of their States, 
in the ceremonies at Indianapolis, having met the train at 
Richmond, Indiana, and accompanied the remains to the cap- 
ital of the State. 

The ceremonies on the part of the State closed at ten o'clock 
with a procession of the marshals around the coffin, after which 
the guard of honor and the guard of sergeants filed in and 
took charge of the remains. The undertaker replaced the lid, 
and the last glance of Abraham Lincoln had been taken in 
Indiana forever. The flowers which garlanded the coffin were 
gathered up and given to the charge of the State Librarian for 
preservation. 

At a few minutes past ten the order was given, and while 
the band played the solemn air, " Old Hundred," the coffin was 
lifted from the dais to the shoulders of the sergeants, and by 
them carried to the funeral car, whence, through a line of 
armed troops and torch bearers, extending from the south en- 
trance of the capitol to the west end of the Union depot, the 
procession, headed by the carriages of Generals Hooker and 
Hovey, and composed of the civic and military escort, attended 
by Senator Lane and Ecpresentatives Orth, Stillwell, and Far- 
quhar, moved, amid the tolling of bells and thousands of un- 
covered heads, to place the coffin of Abraham Lincoln upon the 
train prepared by the Lafayette Railroad Company, to be 
transported to Chicago. 

Every Indianian felt that the honor of the State had been 
brightened by their reception of the remains of President Lin- 
coln, and that the State where he passed some years of his 
youth had rendered her full quota of honor to him as the 
saviour of his country. 



200 

On Sabbath evening, at 10 o'clock, the funeral cortege left 
Indianapolis for Chicago. The demonstrations of sorrow 
along the route from Indianapolis were most solemn and im- 
pressive. At the villages of Whitestown, Lebanon, Thorntown, 
Colfax, Clarksville, and others, people in great numbers were 
assembled, and expressed their sorrow in various and signifi- 
cant symbols. 

At Lafaj-ette, though the train passed it before day-break, 
thousands were assembled to honor the lamented dead. Houses 
were illuminated ; badges of mourning and draped flags were 
abundant ; the bells were tolled, bonfires lit, and the funeral 
strains, sweet and solemn, came from the choir of many voices. 

Michigan City presented striking and beautiful emblems of 
grief. A temporary structure, under which the tr nn stopped, 
was erected with a succession of arches in the Gothic style, 
and from the crowning central point floated a draped na- 
tional flag at half-mast. The arches were trimmed with white 
and black, and ornamented with evergreens and choice flowers. 
Numerous miniature flags fringed the curved edges, and por- 
traits of the lamented dead were encircled with crape. At the 
abutments and at the ends of the main arch were the mottoes: 
" The purposes of the Almighty are perfect, and must pre- 
vail;" " Abraham Lincoln, the noblest martyr to freedom; 
sacred thy dust; hallowed thy resting place." On each side 
of the arch were the words, " Abraham Lincoln," formed with 
sprigs of the arbor vit^, with the mottoes : " Our guiding star 
has fallen ;" " The nation mourns ;" and " Though dead he yet 
speaketh." Near by this combination of arches were sixteen 
young ladies dressed in white waists and black skirts, with 
black sashes. They sung " Old Hundred," concluding with 
the doxology. Many persons were affected to tears, the mili- 
tary and civil. Thirty-six young ladies were on a tastefully- 
decorated platform in white dresses, with black scarfs. They 
held in their hands little flags. In their midst, and almost 
hidden in the folds of the national flag, was a lady represent- 
ing the Genius of America. It was a lovely group, upon which 
all eyes gazed admiringly. Miss Colfax, a niece of the Speaker, 
and fifteen other ladies, entered the funeral car, and laid flowers 
upon the coffin of the dead. Meantime guns were fired, and the 



201 

subduing strains of music gave a solemn sadness and beauty to 
the scene. 

FUNERAL HONORS AT CHICAGO. 

On ^ronday, meridian, tlie 1st of May, 1865, the funeral 
train, numbering nine cars, covered with mourning drapery, ar- 
rived at Chicago, tlio great commercial city of the Northwest, 
bearing back to Illinois the remains of her honored and illus- 
trious citizen, Abraham Lincoln. The imposing scenes of the 
route seemed to culminate in Chicago, and to be, if possible, 
more striking, more beautiful, and more impressive than had 
yet been witnessed. 

Illinois was the early home of the honored dead, the field 
of his forensic life and labors, and the State in which he first 
displayed those just and comprehensive views of statesmanship 
which resulted in his election to the presidency, and secured 
for him a rank among the most illustrious men of the world. 
Chicago, too, was the city where he received, May 16, 1860, 
his first nomination as a candidate for the highest office in the 
republic, to which he was elected by the unanimous vote of the 
free States of the Union. His nomination by the convention 
was hailed with unbounded enthusiasm by the people of Illinois 
and the citizens of Chicago. In his letter of acceptance he 
said : " Imploring the assistance of Divine Providence, and with 
due regard to the views and feelings of all who were repre- 
sented in the convention ; to the rights of all the States and 
Territories and the people of the nation ; to the inviolability 
of the Constitution, and to the perpetual union, harmony, and 
prosperity of all, I am most happy to co-operate for the prac- 
tical success of the principles declared by the convention." 
Thus early, formally, and solemnly devoted to freedom, to the 
Constitution, and to trust in God, Abraham Lincoln nobly ex- 
emplified these sentiments as President of the United States, 
and for which he fell a martyr. The city which greeted his 
nomination and triumphant election with such delight was the 
first to give him a mournful reception on his return to Illinois 
as a dead President and yet a conquering hero. 

A committee of one hundred citizens received his remains at 



202 

Michigan city, aud bore them from Indiana, the home of his 
early and friendless boyhood, into the State of Illinois, and its 
commercial metropolis, where they received the highest possi- 
ble mark of affection and honor. An immense asssemblage 
waited at Park Place, the point at which the funeral train 
paused, and where the remains were borne out of the car into 
the Park. A reception arch was stretched across the Park, 
and its columns, side arches, and gothic windows were draped 
in elaborate mourning, and over each was a motto, expressive 
of some feature in the character and life of the late President, 
and the affection and veneration of the citizens for his memory 
and virtues. 

The cofiRn, carried by eight sergeants, was laid upon the dais 
underneath the arch, and while the pall-bearers and guard of 
honor from Washington formed around the bier, a funeral 
march, " The Lincoln Requiem," composed for the occasion, 
was performed with solemn effect by a musical band. 

As the solemn strains of the funeral march were pealing in 
the air, a most beautiful and touching rite was performed. This 
was the strewing of immortelles and garlands upon the bier by 
thirty-six young ladies of the High School. Before the arrival 
of the funeral escort this fair company of maidens had been the ob- 
ject of universal admiration and remark . Attired in snow white 
robes, with a simple sash of thin black crape tied with a rosette 
at the side ; bare-headed and with a black velvet wreath over 
their brows, in front of which sparkled a single star ; some 
with fair, sunny ringlets hanging loosely around their shoulders ; 
others with their hair arranged in neat plaits at the back— they 
looked the very emblems of purity. 

The grand procession, numbering fifty thousand people, then 
formed and marched through the avenues of the city to the 
Court House, in which the remains of the lamented President 
were placed in state. The Court House outside was draped in 
the most elaborate manner, the windows being decorated with 
mourning flags, and the rotunda covered with symbols of sor- 
row. As the coffin was being placed in position, a choir of a 
hundred voices, overhead and invisible, sang a solemn dirge, 
whicli was inexpressibly sad and mournful. 
The spacious rotunda, where the remains were deposited, was 



203 

decorated with mourning. Rays of black and white cloth 
covered all the roof, being gathered into a centre around the 
chandeliers. The walls were also covered with black and white 
cloth, and significant inscriptions placed over both entrances, 
and upon the walls. Over the north door, on the outside, were 
the words. 

The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places : 

And on the inside, over the same door, 

The altar of Freedom has borne no nobler sacrifice. 

Over the south door, on the outside, was the inscription, 

Illinois clasps to her bosom her slain, but glorified son : 

And inside, over the same entrance, 

He was sustained by our prayers, and returns embalmed by our tears. 

During the first and second days of May, the time that the 
remains reposed in Chicago, a half million of people were spec- 
tators of the solemn ceremonies, and laid their tributes of 
affection and honor upon the dead body of their former fellow- 
citizen and late illustrious President. The civic, military, 
mercantile, professional, educational, mechanical, benevolent, 
and religious, all orders and organizations, with banners 
draped in mourning and the emblems of sorrow, united with the 
citizens and large delegations from Wisconsin and Iowa in 
honoring the remains and the memory of the late President. 
The procession was under the marshalship of Colonel R. M. 
Hough and his assistants, and the pall-bearers consisted of the 
following gentlemen : 

Hon. Lyman Trumbull, Hon. John Wentworth, Hon. F. C. Sherman, Hon. 
E C Larned, Hon. F. A. Hollman, Hon. J. E. Jones, Hon. Thos. Druramond, 
Hon. Wm. Bross, Hon. J. B. Rice, Hon. S. W. Fuller, Hon. T. B. Bryan, Hon. 
J. Y. Scammon. 

During the night solemn dirges were sung ; the Germans, 
some tliree hundred in number, chanted at midnight a beautiful 
and impressive requiem with thrilling effect. The remains were 
removed on the evening of the 2d of May, and borne through 



204 

a line of a thousand men and boys, with blazing torches in 
their hands, to the funeral car. As the remains were re- 
placed, and the train moved slowly away, the German band, in 
strains of sweet and subduing melody, made the scene vocal 
with solemn song, and thus with the benedictions and love of the 
people of Chicago, and the air filled with the harmony of 
music, the remains of tlie honored dead were borne away to- 
wards their resting place in the capital of the State of Illinois. 

FUNERAL ORATION BY SPEAKER COLFAX. 

On Sabbath afternoon, April 30th, the day previous to the 
arrival of the funeral cortege at Chicago, the Hon. Schuyler 
Colfax, Speaker of the House of Representatives in the Thirty- 
Ninth Congress, and long the intimate, honored, and political 
friend of the late President, delivered, in Byrant Hall, a funeral 
oration on the life and character of the illustrious deceased. 

The chair was occupied by John V. Farwell, Esq., the Presi- 
dent of the Northwestern Branch of the Christian Commission. 
The services were opened with prayer by Prof. P. W. Fisk, 
D. D., of the Chicago Theological Seminary, after which Mr. 
Farwell introduced the eloquent speaker in a few befitting and 
appropriate remarks. 

The copy of the oration, inserted in this memorial record, 
was written out, at the special request of Rev. Thomas Eddy, 
D. D., Editor of the Northwestern Christian Advocate^ by the 
orator, and is as follows : 

Over two centuries and a half have passed away since the ruler of any great 
nation of the world has fallen by the murderous attack of an assassin ; and for 
the first time in our history there is blood on the presidential chair of the re- 
public. Death is almost always saddening. The passing away of some dear 
friend from our earthly sight forever fills the heart with sorrow. When it 
strikes down one who fills honorably a position of influence and power, as in 
the case of our two Presidents who died of disease in the White House, the sin- 
cerest grief is felt throughout the land. But when this afiliction is aggravated 
by death coming through the hand of a murderer, it is not strange that the 
wave of woe sweeps gloomily over a nation, which sits down to mourn in 
sackcloth, its pulses of business stilled, feeling in every individual heart as if 
there was one dead at our own hearthstones. It seems, too, as if this wicked 
deed was intensified, in all its horror, by every attendant circumstance. The 
fatal shot was fired on the very day when the nation's flag was again 
unfurled in triumph over that fort in Charleston harbor, which, in four years' 



205 

time, bad been tbe cradle and tbe grave of the rebellion. It was at an hour 
when the death of the President could not be of the slightest avail to the trea- 
sonable conspiracy against the republic, which its military leaders acknowl- 
edged at last was powerless and overthrown. And it was aimed, alas ! with 
too sure a hand, at the life of that one man in the Government whose heart 
was tenderest towards the would-be assassins of the nation's life. 

You may search history, ancient and modern, and when the task is ended all 
will concede that Abraham Lincoln was the most merciful ruler who ever put 
down a powerful rebellion. He had so won the hearts of the people, and so en- 
twined himself in their regard and affection, that he was the only man living 
who could have stood in the breach between the leaders of this iniquity and the 
wrath of the country they had plunged into bloody war. Feeling, as so many 
did, that his kindly heart almost forgot justice in its throbbings for mercy, yet, 
knowing his unfaltering devotion to his country, his inflexible adherence to 
principle, his unyielding determination for the restoration of our national unity, 
there was a trust in him, almost filial in its loving confidence, that whatever 
he should finally resolve on would prove in the end to be for the best. Had 
he been an unforgiving ruler ; had his daily practice been to sit in his high 
place and there administer with unrelenting severity the penalties of offended 
law ; had he proclaimed his resolution to consign all the pjlotters against his 
country to the gallows they had earned, we might have understood why the 
rebel assassins conspired against his life. But no assassination in history — 
not even that of llenry IV of France, for which Ravaillac was torn in pieces 
by horses, nor William of Orange — approximates in utterly unpalliated infamy 
to this. 

In the midst of the national rejoicings over the assured triumph of the na- 
tional cause, with illuminations and bonfires blazing in every town, and the 
merry peal of the festive bell in every village, our cities blossoming with flags, 
our hearts beating high with joy, the two great armies of Grant and Lee fra- 
ternizing together after their long warfare, and exulting together over 
the return of peace, we were brought in a single moment from the utmost 
heights of felicity to the deepest valleys of lamentation. No wonder that 
rebel generals acknowledged that it sent down their cause through all the 
coming centuries to shameless dishonor. For, disguise it as some maj'' seek to 
do, behind the form of the assassin, as his finger pulled the fatal trigger, 
looms up the dark and fiendish spirit of the rebellion, which, baffled in its 
work of assassinating the nation's life, avenged itself on the life of him who 
represented the nation's contest and the nation's victory. As surely as the 
infamous offer of twenty-five thousand crowns by Philip of Spain to whomso- 
ever would rid the world of tlie pious William of Orange, the purest and best- 
loved ruler of his times, who, by a striking coincidence, was called Father 
William, as we called our beloved President Father Abraham — as surely as 
this public offer, with its false denunciations of William's offences, inspirited 
the murderous Balthazer to shoot him through the body — so surely are the 
chiefs of this gigantic rebellion of our times responsible for the fatal bullet 
that carried death to our Chief Magistrate, and filled the land with unavailing 
Borrow. 



206 

Unrebuked by them, history repeated itself in the following infamous proffer, 
published in the Selma (Alabama) Dispatch of last December, and copied ap- 
provingly into other rebel organs : 

" One Million Dollars WANTEr>, to have Peace et the Fit?st of Maech. 
— If the citizens of the Southern Confederacy will furnish me with the cash, or 
good securities for the sum of one million dollars, I will cause the lives of Abra- 
ham Lincoln, W. H. Seward, and Andrew Johnson to be taken by the first of 
March next. This will give us peace, and satisfy the world that cruel tyrants 
cannot live in a ' land of liberty.' If this is not accomplished, nothing will be 
claimed beyond the sum of fifty thousand dollars in advance, which is supposed 
to be necessary to reach and slaughter the three villains. 

" I will give, myself, one thousand dollars toward this patriotic purpose. 

" Every one wishing to contribute will address Box X, Cahawba, Ala. 

" December 1, 1864." 

You will not fail to remember that these very three thus named were to have 
been murdered on that fatal night ; and that when Booth was captured he was 
fleeing in that very direction. 

And, to fix upon them the brand inefiaceably and for ever, as the miscreant 
leaped upon the stage, his shout of Virginia's motto, "Sic semper tyrannis" 
with his own addition, " The South is avenged," proclaims to the civilized world, 
which will be filled with horror at the deed, as well as to posterity, which will 
ever loathe the crime and the cause for who.se interests it was committed, the 
authorship of this unparalleled atrocity. It seems, however, but a natural 
sequel to the infamous plot to murder him as he passed through Baltimore 
when first elected ; to the brutalities on our dead soldiers at Bull Run, burying 
them face downwards, and carving up their bones into trinkets ; to the piracies 
on the high seas, and attempts to burn women and children to death in crowded 
hotels and theatres ; to Fort Pillow massacres, and to the systematic and inex- 
piable starvation of thousands of Union prisoners in their horrid pens. 

I can scarcely trust myself to attempt the portraiture of our martyred chief, 
whose death is mourned as never man's was mourned before : and who, in all 
the ages that may be left to America, while time shall last, will be enshrined 
in solemn memory with the Father of the Eepublic which he saved. How 
much I loved him personally, I cannot express to you. Honored always by 
his confidence ; treated ever by him with affectionate regard ; sitting often with 
him familiarly at his table ; his last visitor on that terrible night; receiving 
his last message, full of interest to the toiling miners of the distant West; 
walking by his side from his parlor to the door, as he took his last steps in that 
Executive Mansion he had honored ; receiving the last grasp of that generous 
and loving hand, and his last, last, good-by ; declining his last kind invitation 
to join him in those hours of relaxation which incessant care and anxiety 
seemed to render so desirable, my mind has since been tortured with regrets 
that I had not accompanied him. If the knife which the assassin had intended 
for Grant had not been wasted, as it possibly would not have been, on one of 
BO much less importance in our national aifairs, pierchance a sudden backward 
look at that eventful instant might have saved that life, so incalculably 



207 

precious to v/ife and children and country; or, failing in that, might have 
hindered or prevented the escape of his murderer. The willingness of any man 
to endanger his life for another's is so much doubted that I scarcely dare to say 
how willingly I would have risked my own to preserve his, of such priceless 
value to us all. But if you can realize that it is sweet to die for one's country, 
as so many scores of thousands, from every State and county and hamlet, have 
proved in the years that are past, you can imagine the consolation there would 
be to any one, even in his expiring hours, to feel that he had saved the land 
from a funereal gloom which, but a few days ago, settled down upon it from 
ocean to ocean and from capitol to cabin, at the loss of one for whom even a 
hei;atomb of victims could not atone. 

Of this noble hearted man, so full of genial impulses, so self forgetful, so 
utterly unselfish, so pure and gentle and good, who lived for us and at last died 
for us, I feel how inadequate I am to portray his manifold excellences — his 
intellectual worth — his generous character — his fervid patriotism. Pope cele- 
brated the memory of Eobert Earley, the Lord of Oxford, a privy counselor of 
Queen Anne, who himself narrowly escaped assassination, in lines that seem 
prophetic of Mr. Lincoln's virtues : 

A soul supreme in each hard instance tried ; 
Above all pain, all anger, and all pride, 
The rage of power, the blast of public breath, 
The lust of lucre, and the dread of death. 

No one could ever convince the President that he was in danger of violent 
death. Judging others by himself, he could not realize that any one could seek 
his blood. Or he may have believed, as Napoleon wrote to Jerome, that no 
public man could effectually shield himself from the danger of assassination. 
Easier of access to the public at large than had been any of his predecessors ; 
admitting his bitterest enemies to his reception-room alone ; restive under the 
cavalry escort which Secretary Stanton insisted should accompany him last 
summer in his daily journeys between the White House and his summer resi- 
dence, at the Soldiers' Home, several miles from Washington, at a time, too, as 
since ascertained in the details of this long-organized plot discovered since his 
death, when it was intended to gag and handcuff him and to carry him to the 
rebel capital as a hostage for their recognition ; sometimes escaping from their 
escort by anticipating their unusual hour of attendance ; walking about the 
grounds unattended ; he could not be persuaded that he run any risk whatever. 
Being at City Point after the evacuation of Richmond, he determined to go 
thither, not from idle curiosity, but to see if he could not do something to stop 
the effusion of blood and hasten the peace for which he longed. The ever- 
watchful Secretary of War, bearing of it, implored hira by telegraph not to go, 
and warned him that some lurking assassin might take his life. But armed 
with his good intentions — alas ! how feeble a shield they proved against the death- 
blow afterwards — he went, walked fearlessly and carelessly through the streets, 
met and conferred with a rebel leader who had remained there, and when he 
returned to City Point, telegraphed to his faithful friend and constitutional 
adviser, who till then had feared as we all did at that time for his life : 



208 

" I received your despatch last night, went to Richmond this morning, and liave 
just returned. 

"ABRAHAM LINCOLN." 

When I told him, on that last night, how uneasy all had been at his going, 
he replied, pleasantly and with a smile, (I quote his exact words,) " Why^ if 
any one else had been President and gone to Richmond, I would have been 
alarmed too ; but I was not scared about myself a bit." 

If any of you have even been at Washington, you will remember the foot- 
path lined and embowered with trees leading from the back door of the War 
Department to the White House. One night, and but recently too, when, in 
his anxiety for news from the army, he had been with the Secretary in the 
telegraph office of the Department, he was about starting home at a late hour 
by this short route, Mr. Stanton stopped him and said, " You ought not to go 
that way ; it is dangerous for you even in the daytime, but worse at night." 
Mr. Lincoln replied, " I don't believe there's any danger there, day or night." 
Mr. Stanton responded solemnly, "Well, Mr. President, you shall not be killed 
returning that dark way from my Department while I am in it; you must let 
me take you round by the avenue in my carriage." And Mr. Lincoln, joking 
the Secretary on his imperious military orders and his needless alarm on his 
account, as he called it, entered his carriage and was driven by the well-lighted 
avenue to the White House. 

And thus he walked through unseen dangers, without " the dread of death;" 
his warm heart so full of good will, even to his enemies, that he could not 
imagine there was any one base enough to slay him ; and the death-dealing 
bullet was sped to its mark in a theatre, where, but little over an hour before, 
he had been welcomed as he entered by a crowded audience rising, and with 
cheers and waving of handkerchiefs, honoring him with an ovation of which 
any one might well be proud. Some regret that he was there at all. But, to 
all human appearance, he was safer there, by far, than in his own reception- 
room, where unknown visitors so often entered alone. He found there a 
temporary respite occasionally from the crowds who thronged his ante-rooms — 
relaxation from the cares and perplexities which so constantly oppressed him, 
keeping his mind under the severest tension, like the bent bow, till it almost 
lost its spring — and, on this fatal night, to be so black an one hereafter in our 
calendar, going with reluctance, and, as he expressed it to Mr. Ashmun and 
myself, only because General Grant, who had been advertised with himself to 
be present, had been compelled to leave the city, and he did not wish to disap- 
point those who would expect to see him there. 

To those who have expressed their regrets that the murderer found him in a 
theatre, let me further add that, by the etiquette of Washington, the President 
is prohibited from making or returning calls, except in the case of the danger- 
ous illness of some intimate friend. If he made one social visit, the thousands 
whom he could not call on, especially distinguished strangers from abroad, 
would feel the discrimination. And hence, a President, not able to enjoy a 
social evening at some friend's mansion, as all of us can, must remain within 
the four walls of the White House, or seek relaxation from the engrossing cares 



209 

which always confront him there from sunrise till midnight at some public 
place of amusement. I remember that, when we heard of those bloody battles 
of the Wilderness which any one less persistent than General Grant would have 
regarded as reverses that justihed retreat, Mr. Lincoln went to the opera, say- 
ing: "People may think strange of it, but 1 must have some relief from this 
te"i"rible anxiety, or it will kill me." 

Of the many thousands of persons I have met in public or private life, I 
cannot call to mind a single one who exceeded him in calmness of temper, in 
kindness of disposition, and in overflowing generosity of impulse. .1 doubt if 
his most intimate associate ever heard him utter bitter or vindictive language. 
He seemed wholly free from malignity or revenge, from ill-will or injustice. 
Attacked ever so sharply, you all remember that he never answered railing 
with railing. Criticised ever so unjustly, he would reply with no word of re- 
proof, but patiently and uncomplainingly, if he answered at all, strive to prove 
that he stood on the rock of right. When, from the halls of Congress or else- 
where, his most earnest opponents visited the White House with business, they 
would be met as frankly, listened to as intently, and treated as justly as his 
most earnest friends. It could be said of him as Pyrrhus said of Fabricius, 
when the latter, though in hostile array, exposed to his enemy the treachery 
of his physician, who proffered to poison him : " It is easier to turn the sun from 
his career than Fabricius from his honesty." Men of all parties will remem- 
ber, when the exciting contest of last fall ended in his triumphant re-election, 
his first word thereafter, from the portico of the White House, was, that he 
could not and would not exult over his countrymen who had differed with his 
policy. 

And thus he ruled, and thus he lived, and thus he died. The wretch who 
stood behind him and sent his bullet crashing through that brain, which had 
been devising plans of reconciliation with the country's deadly foes, as he 
leaped upon the stage and exulted over the death of him whom he denounced 
as a tyrant, uttered as foul a falsehood as the lying witnesses who caused the 
conviction and the crucifixion of the Son of Man, on the same Good Friday, 
nearly two thousand years ago. I would not compare the human with the 
Divine, except in that immeasurable contrast of the finite with the infinite. 
But his whole life proves to me that if he could have had a single moment of 
consciousness and of speech, his great heart would have prompted him to pray 
for those who had plotted for his blood, " Father, forgive them, for they know 
not what they do." 

He bore the nation's perils and trials and sorrows ever on his mind. You 
knew him, in a large degree, by the illustrative stories, of which his memory 
and his tongue w'ere so prolific, using them to point a moral, or to soften dis- 
content at his decisions ; but this was the mere badinage which relieved him for 
the moment from the heavy weight of public duties and responsibilities under 
which he often wearied. Those whom he admitted to his confidence, and with 
whom he conversed of his feelings, knew that his inner life was checkered with 
the deepest anxiety and most discomforting solicitude. Elated by victories for 
the cause which was ever in his thoughts, reverses to our arms cast a pall of 
depression over him. One morning, over two years ago, calling upon him on 
14 



210 

business, I found liim looking more than usually pale and careworn, and 
inquired the reason. He replied, with the bad news he had received at a late 
hour the previous night, which had not yet been communicated to the press, 
adding that he had not closed his eyes or breakfasted ; and, with an expression 
I shall never forget, he exclaimed, "How willingly would I exchange places 
to-day with the soldier who sleeps on the ground in the Army of the Potomac." 

He was as free from deceit as from guile. He had one peculiarity which 
often misled those with whom he conversed. When his judgment, which acted 
slowly, but which was almost as immovable as the eternal hills when settled, 
was grasping some subject of importance, the arguments against his own de- 
sires seemed uppermost in his mind, and in conversing upon it he would present 
these arguments to see if they could be rebutted. He thus often surprised both 
friend and foe in his final decisions. Always willing to listen to all sides till 
the latest possible moment, yet, when he put down his foot, he never took a 
backward step. Once speaking of an eminent statesman, he said: " When a 
question confronts him he always and naturally argues it from the standpoint 
of which is the better policy; but with me," he added, "my only desire is to 
see what is right." And this is the key to his life. His parents left Kentucky 
for Indiana in his childhood on account of slavery in the former State, and he 
thus inherited a dislike for that institution. As he said recently to Gov. Bram- 
lette, of his native State, " If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong." Moving 
to Illinois, he found the prejudice there against anti-slavery men, when he 
entered on public and professional life, more intense than in any other free 
State in the Union. But he never dissembled, never concealed his opinions. 
Entering, in 1858, on that contest with his great political rival but personal 
friend, Judge Douglas, which attracted the attention of the whole Union, he 
startled many of his friends by the declaration of his convictions that the Union 
could not permanently endure half slave and half free — that ultimately it 
would be either the one or the other, or be a divided house that could not 
stand — that he did not expect the Union to be dissolved or the house to fall, 
but that it would cease to be divided — and that the hope of the Republic was 
in staying the spread of slavery that the public mind might rest in the hope of 
its ultimate extinction. And though he coupled this with declaration against 
Congressional interference with it in existing States, it was not popular, and 
kept him in the whole canvass upon the defensive. But to every argument 
against it his calm reply was, in substance, " such is my clear conviction, and I 
cannot unsay it." 

His frankness in expressing i\npopular opinions was manifested also when, in 
Southern Illinois, before an audience almost unanimously hostile to the senti- 
ment, he declared in the same close and doubtful contest, that, when the Declara- 
tion of Independence proclaimed that all men were created free and equal, it did 
not mean white men alone, but negroes as well, and that their rights to life, lib- 
erty, and the pursuit of happiness were as inalienable as the noblest in the land. 
He claimed no power over State laws in other States which conflicted with these 
rights, or curtailed them ; but with unfaltering devotion to his conscientious 
conviction, and regardless of its effects on his political prospects, he never wa- 
vered in his adherence to this truth. And yet, when elected President of the 



211 

United States he executed the fugitive slave law, because his oath of office as 
the Executive, in his opinion, required it. When urged to strike at slavery 
under the war power, he replied in a widely published letter, " My paramount 
object is to save the Union, and I would save it in the shortest way. If I could 
save the Union without freeing any slaves, I would do it. If I could save it 
bj- freeing all the slaves, I would do it ; and if I could do it by freeing some and 
leaving others alone, I would also do that. But I intend no modification of 
my often expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free." And 
'when at last the hour arrived when, in his honest opinion, the alternative be- 
tween the death of slavery and the death of the Union confronted him, then, 
and not till then, he struck at the cause of all our woes with the battle-axe of the 
Union. Signing that immortal proclamation which made him the Liberator of 
America, on the afternoon of January 1st, 1863, after hours of New Year's hand- 
shaking, ho said to me and other friends that night, " The signature looks a 
little tremulous, for my hand was tired ; but my resolution was firm. I told 
them in September, if they did not return to their allegiance and cease mur- 
dering our soldiers, I would strike at this pillar of their strength. And now 
the promise shall be kept ; and not one word of it will I ever recall." And 
the promise was kept, and every word of it has stood. Thank God, when 
slavery and treason benumbed that hand in death, they could not destroy that 
noble instrument to which that hand had given a life that shall never die. A 
great writer said that when Wilberforce stood at the bar of God he held in his 
hands the broken shackles which on earth had bound hundreds of thousands 
of his fellow men. But, when bafEled treason hurried Abraham Lincoln into 
the presence of his Maker, he bore with him the manacles of four millions 
whom he had made free — fetters that no power on God's footstool is strong 
enough to place again on their enfranchised limbs. 

No man in our era, clothed with such vast power, has ever used it so merci- 
fully. No ruler holding the keys of life and death ever pardoned so many and 
so easily. When friends said to him they wished he had more of Jackson's 
sternness, he would say, " I am just as God made me, and cannot change." It 
may not be generally known that his doorkeepers had standing orders from 
him, that no matter how great might be the throng, if Senators and Rep- 
resentatives had to wait or to be turned away without an audience, he must see, 
before the day closed, every messenger who came to him with a petition for the 
saving of life. One night in February I left all other business to ask him to 
respite the son of a constituent, who was sentenced to be shot, at Davenport, 
for desertion. He heard the story with his usual patience, though he was 
wearied out with incessant calls, and anxious for rest, and then replied: "Some 
of our generals complain that I impair discipline and subordination in the 
armj' by my pardons and respites, but it makes me rested, after a day's hard 
work, if I can find some good excuse for saving a man's life, and I go to bed 
happy, as I think how joyous the signing of my name will make him, and his 
family, and his friends." And with a happy smile beaming over that care- 
furrowed face, he signed that name that saved that life. 

But Abraham Lincoln was not only a good and a just and a generous and a 
humane man. I could not be just to that well-rounded character of his with- 



01 o 

out adding that he was also a praying man. He often said that his reliance in 
the gloomiest hours was on his God, to whom he appealed la prayer, although 
he never became a professor of religion. To a clergyman who asked him if he 
loved his Saviour, he replied, and he was too truthful for us to doubt the decla- 
ration : "When I was first inaugurated I did not love Him ; when God took my 
son I was greatly impressed, but still I did not love Him ; but when I stood 
upon the battle-field of Gettysburg, I gave my heart to Christ, and I can now 
say I do love the Saviour." 

Two of my fellow-members, Messrs Wilson of Iowa, and Casey of Ken- 
tucky, called upon him at one of those periods when reverses had dispirited our 
people. Conversing about the prospects of our country, one of them said, 
"Well, Mr. President, I have faith that Providence is with us, and if the people 
are but true to the cause, all will be right." Mr. Lincoln gravely replied, with 
deep solemnity in his tone, " I have a. higher faith than yours. I have a faith, 
not only that God is with our cause, but that He will control the hearts of the 
people so that they will be faithful to it too." 

The Bible was always in his reception room. I have doubted the report 
that he read an hour in it every day, for he often came direct from his bed to 
his reception room, so anxious was he to accommodate members-who had im- 
portant business, and it would sometimes be two or three hours before he would 
playfully say to some friend whose turn had come, "Won't you stay here till I 
get some breakfast?" But he must have read the Bible considerably, for he 

often quoted it. One day that I happened to come in, he said, " Mr. has 

just been here attacking one of my Cabinet, but I stopped him with this text," 
and he read from the Proverbs a text I had never heard quoted before, as fol- 
lows: "Accuse not the servant to his master." 

You cannot fail to have noticed the solemn and sometimes almost mournful 
strain that pervades many of his addresses. When he left Springfield, in 1861, 
to assume the Presidency, his farewell words were as follows : 

" My Friends: No one not in my position can appreciate the sadness I feel at 
this parting. To this people I owe all that I am. Here I have lived more 
than a quarter of a century ; here my children were born, and here one of them 
lies buried. I know not how soon I shall see you again. A duty devolves 
upon me which is, perhaps, greater than that which has devolved upon any 
other man since the days of AVashington. He never would have succeeded 
except for the aid of Divine Providence, upon which he at all times relied. I 
feel that I cannot succeed without the same Divine aid which sustained him, 
and on the same Almighty Being I place my reliance for support; and I hope 
you, my friends, will all pray that I may receive that Divine assistance, with- 
out which I cannot succeed, but with which success is certain. Again I bid 
you all an affectionate farewell." 

Before that murderer's blow closed his eyes in death, that "success" for which 
he had struggled was assured — that "duty" devolved upon him had been per- 
formed. But the friends to whom, with " the sadness he felt at parting," he 



213 

bade this " affectionate farewell," can only look upon his lifeless corpse, now 
slowly borne to their midst. 

When, in the same month, he raised the national flag over Independence Hall, 
at Philadelphia, he said to the assembled tens of thousands : " It was something 
in the Declaration of Independence giving liberty, not only to the people of 
this country, but hope to the world for all coming time. It was that which 
gave promise that in due time the weights should be lifted from the shoulders 
of all men, and that all should have an equal chance. * * * * 
Now, my friends, can this country be saved upon that basis? If it can, I will 
consider myself one of the happiest men in the world if I can help to save it. 
But if this country cannot be saved without giving up that principle, I was 
about to say that I would rather be assassinated upon the spot than to surrender 
it. 1 have said nothing but what I am willing to live by, and if it be the 
pleasure of Almighty God, to die by." 

He seemed, as he thus spoke, to have the dark shadow of his violent death 
before him. But even in its presence he declared that he would rather be as- 
sassinated than to surrender a principle ; and that while ho was willing to live 
by it, yet, if it was God's pleasure, he was equally willing to die by it. He 
was assassinated, but his name and principles will live while history exists and 
the republic endures. 

So, too, in the conclusion of his first inaugural, he appealed in the language 
of entreaty and peace to those who had raised their mailed hands against the 
life of their father-land: 

" You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You 
have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the government, while I have 
the most solemn one to preserve, protect, and defend it. The mystic cord of 
memory, stretching from every battle-field and patriot grave to every living 
heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the 
Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our 
nature." 

In all my literary reading, I have never found a more beautiful and touching 
sentence than the one I have just quoted. 

In the funeral exercises in the East Room on the 19th of April, the very an- 
niversary of the day when the blood of murdered Alassachusetts soldiers stained 
the stones of the city of Baltimore, Dr. Gurley quoted the President's solemn 
reply to a company of clergymen who called on him in one of the darkest hours 
of the war, when, standing where his lifeless remains then rested, he replied 
to them in tones of deep emotion : 

" Gentlemen, my hope of success in this great and terrible struggle rests on 
that immutable foundation, the justness and goodness of God. And when events 
are very threatening and prospects very dark, I still hope in some way, which 
man cannot see, all will be well in the end, because our cause is just and God 
is on our side." 



214 

You cannot have forgotten this impressive invocation with which he closed 
his Proclamation of Emancipation : 

" And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by 
the Constitution on military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of 
mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God." 

The solemn words of his last inaugural sound in my ears to-day as I heard 
them fall from his lips only last month, on the steps of the Capitol. There was 
no exultation over his own success, though he was the first Northern President 
who had eve;- been re-elected. There was no bitterness against the men who 
had filled our land with new-made graves, and who were striving to stab the 
nation to its death. There was no confident and enthusiastic prediction of the 
country's triumph. But, with almost the solemn utterances of one of the He- 
brew prophets ; as if he felt he was standing, as he was, on the verge of his 
open grave, and addressing his last ofiicial words to his countrymen, with his 
lips touched by the finger of inspiration, he said : 

"The Almighty has his own purposes. 'Woe unto the world because of of- 
fences, for it must needs be that offences come ; but woe to that man by whom 
the offence cometh.' If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those 
offences which in the providence of God must needs come, but which, having 
continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that lie 
gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by 
whom the offence came, shall we discern therein any departure from those 
divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him ? 
Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that that mighty scourge of war may 
soon pass away. Yet, if God will that it continue until all the wealth piled by 
the bondman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, 
and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid with another 
drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be 
■said, ' The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.' 

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as 
God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in ; to 
bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle 
and for his widow and his orphans, to do all which may achieve and cherish a 
just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." 

What a portraiture of his own character he unconsciously draws in this 
closing paragraph : "With malice toward none, with charity for ail, with firm- 
ness in the right, as God gives us to see the right." And yet they slew him ! 

As this extraordinary state paper crossed the Atlantic to the Old World, it 
elicited the most profound interest. Mr. Gladstone, himself the most eloquent 
of living English statesmen, spoke in the most elevated eulogy of it, saying 
that it showed a moral elevation which commanded the highest respect ; adding 
in emphatic language, " I am taken captive by so striking an utterance as this; 
for I see in it the effect of sharp trial, when rightly borne, to raise men to a 
higher level of thought and feeling than any could otherwise reach." And the 



215 

British Standard declared it "the most remarkable thing of the sort ever pro- 
nounced by any President of the United States from the first day until now. Its 
Alpha and its Omega is Almighty God, the God of j ustice and the Father of mercies, 
who is working out the purposes of his love. It is invested with a dignity and 
pathos which lift it high above everything of the kind, whether in the Old 
World or the New." 

Bear with me further while I quote one letter, when, in the midst of the ex- 
citing canvass of last fall, in which he was so deeply interested, during the very 
week that he was being denounced in Chicago, as scarcely any man had ever 
been denounced before, he shut out the thoughts of these cruelly unj ust asper- 
sions to write in this deeply impressive strain to a Philadelphia lady, then 
resident in England: 

" Executive Mansion, 
" Washington, Sept. 6, 1864. 
" Eliza B. Gueney : 

" My Esteemed Friend : I have never forgotten, probably naver shall forget, 
the very impressive occasion, when yourself and friends visited me on a Sab- 
bath forenoon, two years ago, nor has your kind letter, written nearly a year 
later, ever been forgotten. 

" In all it has been your purpose to strengthen my reliance on God. I am 
much indebted to the good Christian people of the country for their constant 
prayers and consolations, and no one of them more than yourself. The pur- 
poses of the Almighty are perfect and must prevail, though we erring mortals 
may fail to perceive them in advance. 

" We hoped for a happy termination of this terrible war long before this, but 
God knows best, and has ruled otherwise. We shall acknowledge His wisdom 
and our own errors therein. Meanwhile we must work earnestly in the best 
light Ho gives us, trusting that so working still conduces to the great end He 
ordains. Surely He intends some great good to follow this mighty convulsion 
which no mortal could stay. Your people — the Friends — have had and are hav- 
ing very great trial on principle and faith." 

I stop here in the reading of this letter to draw your attention to the next 
sentence, which illustrates Mr. Lincoln's power in stating facts. He seemed to 
have the rare ability of taking a great truth, a living principle, or a striking 
argument, out of all the mists that might be gathered around it, and place it 
before you so vividly, in a single sentence, that the presentation of it by others 
would contrast with his as a picture flat before your eyes compares with the 
figures in the same picture brought out so palpably and lifelike under the 
linocular mystery of the stereoscope. Witness the striking condensation and 
unanswerable argument of this next sentence: 

" Opposed to both war and oppression, they can only practically oppose op- 
pression by war. In this hard dilemma some have chosen one horn and some 
the other. For those appealing to me on conscientious grounds, I have done, 
and shall do the best I can in my own conscience, and my oath to the law. 



216 

That you believe this I doubt not, and believing it, I shall still receive, for our 
country and nayself, your earnest prayers to our Father in heaven. 
" Your sincere friend, 

"A. LINCOLN." 

And yet, while he was writing this beautiful letter, he was denounced at 
Chicago as a tyrant and usurper, and compared to Nero and Caligula, and 
every other vile wretch whose black deeds darken the page of history. 

Nor should I forget to mention here that the last act of Congress ever signed 
by him, was one requiring that the motto, in which he sincerely believed, " In 
God we trust," should hereafter be inscribed upon all our national coin. 

But April came at last, with all its glorious resurrection of spring — that 
spring which he was not to see ripening into summer. The last sands in the 
hour-glass of his life were falling. His last moment drew nigh ; for his banded 
assassins, foiled in an attempt to poison him last year, (a plot only discov- 
ered since detectives have been tracking the mysteries of his death,) had re- 
solved this time on striking a surer blow. Victory after victory crowned our 
national armies. A hundred captured rebel banners filled the War Department! 
Scores of thousands of rebel soldiers had surrendered, and all over the republic 
the joyous acclaim of millions hailed the promised land of peace. But our be- 
loved leader was to enter another land of rest. Thank Heaven, though wicked 
men may kill the body, they cannot kill the immortal soul. And if the spirits 
of the good men who have left us are permitted to look back on the laud they 
loved in life, it is not presumptuous to believe that Washington and Lincoln, 
from the shining courts above, look down to-day with paternal interest on the 
nation which, under Providence, the one had founded and the other saved, and 
which will entwine their names together in hallowed recollection forever. 

But in his last hours all these affectionate traits of character, which I have 
so inadequately delineated, shone out in more than wonted brilliancy. How 
his kindly heart must have throbbed with joy as, on the very day before his 
death, he gladdened so many tens of thousands of anxious minds by ordering 
the abandonment of the impending but now not needed draft! With what 
generous magnanimity he authorized our heroic Lieutenant General to proffer 
terms unparalleled in their liberality to the army of Virginia, so long the bul- 
wark of rebellion ! And the very last official act of his life was, when learning by 
telegraph, that very Friday afternoon, that two of the leaders and concocters 
of the rebellion were expected to arrive disguised, in a few hours, at one of our 
ports, to escape to Europe, he instructed our officers not to arrest them, but let 
them flee the country. He did not wish their blood, but their associates thirsted 
for his, and, in a few short hours after this message of mercy to save their friends 
from death sped on the wings of lightning, with wicked hands they slew him. 
No last words of affection to weeping wife and children did they allow him. 
No moment's space for prayer to God. But in order that consciousness might 
end with the instant, the pistol was held close to the skull, that the bullet might 
be buried in his brain. 

Thus lived and thus died our murdered President. But, as the ruffian shot 
down the pilot at our helm, just as the ship of State, after all its stormy seas, 
was sailing prosperously into port, another, whose life, like that of Seward and 



217 

Stanton, had been marked for that very night of horrors, but who had been 
saved, sprang to the rudder, and the noble ship holds on her course, without a 
flutter in her canvas or a strain upon her keel. Andrew Johnson, to whom 
the public confidence was so quickly and worthily transferred, is cast in a sterner 
mold than him whose place he fills. He has warred on traitors in his mountain 
home as they have warred on him ; and he insists, with this crowning infamy 
filling up their cup of wickedness, that treason should be made odious, and that 
mercy to the leaders who engendered it is cruelty to the nation. 

The text of Holy Writ, which he believes in for them, is in the 26th verse of 
the 7th chapter of Ezra: "Let judgment be executed speedily upon him, 
whether it be unto death, or to banishment, or to confiscation of goods, or to 
imprisonment ; " and to this do not all loyal hearts respond amen ? 

And thus, though the President is slain, the nation lives. The statesman 
•who has so successfully conducted our foreign correspondence as to save us from 
threatened and endangering complications and difiiculties abroad, and who, with 
the President, leaned over to mercy's side, so brutally bowie-knifed as he lay 
helpless on his bed of anguish, is happily to be spared us ; and the conspiracy 
which intended a bloody harvest of six patriots' lives, reaped with its murderous 
sickle but one. 

But that one — how dear to all our hearts — how priceless in its Worth, how 
transparent and spotless its purity of character. In the fiery trial to which the 
nation has been subjected, we have given of the bravest and the best of the 
land. The South is billowed with the graves where sleep the patriot martyrs 
of constitutional liberty till the resurrection morn. The vacant chair at the 
table of thousands upon thousands tells of those who, inspired by the sublimest 
spirit of self-sacrifice, have died that the republic might survive. Golden and 
living treasures have been heaped upon our country's altar. But after all these 
costly sacrifices had been ofi'ered, and the end seemed almost at hand, a costlier 
sacrifice had to be made ; and from the highest place in all the land the victim 
came. Slaughtered at the moment of victory, the blow was too late to rob him 
of the grand place he has won for himself in history. 

'We know him now. All narrow jealousies 
Are silent. And we see him as he moved — 
How modest, kindly, all compassionate, wise, 
With what sublime repression of himself, 
And in what limits and how tenderly. 
Whose glory was redressing human wrongs; 
Not making his high place the lawless perch 
Of winged ambitions, nor a vantage ground 
Of pleasure. But through all this tract of years, 
Wearing the white flower of a blameless life." 

Murdered, cofiined, buried, he will live with those few immortal names who 
were not born to die ; live as the Father of the Faithful in the time that tried 
men's souls ; live in the grateful hearts of the dark-browed race he lifted under 
the heel of the oppressor to the dignity of freedom and of manhood ; live in 



218 

every bereaved circle which has given father, husband, son, or friend to die, as 
he did, for his country ; live with the glorious company of martyrs to liberty, 
justice, and humanity, that trio of Heaven-born principles; live in the love of 
all beneath the circuit of the sun, who loathe tyranny, slavery, and wrong. 
And, leaving behind him a record that shows how honesty and principle lifted 
him, self-made as he was, from the humblest ranks of the people to the noblest 
station on the globe, and a name that shall brighten under the eye of posterity 
as the ages roll by — 

" From the top of Fame's ladder he stepped to the sky." 

Notwithstanding the request of the speaker that the audience 
would not applaud, it was impossible to restrain them, and Mr. 
Colfax was repeatedly interrupted. 

From Chicago to Springfield the funeral train was greeted 
with mournful demonstrations of respect. At Lockport the 
night was illuminated with bonfires, and hundreds of persons 
holding torches in their hands. The buildings were draped with 
symbols of sorrow, and in the reflected light was read the 
touching and appropriate motto, " Come Home." 

At Joliet, twelve thousand persons at midnight were assem- 
bled to add their tribute to the departed President. Minute 
guns were fired, bells were tolled, and a band played a funeral 
dirge. The train moved beneath an arch, which spanned the 
track. It was constructed of immense timbers, decked with mot- 
toes and a profusion of evergreens, and surmounted by a figure 
of the Genius of America, in the attitude of weeping. The 
hymn, " There is rest for thee in Heaven," was sung by mixed 
Yoices as the train slowly left. 

At Wilmington a number of people were drawn up in line 
on each side of the track, with torches. Minute guns were 
fired. Over 2,000 persons were gathered. At Gardner all the 
houses were draped and illuminated. 

At Towanda were a large assemblage of people. At Bloom- 
ington a large arch bore the in,scription, " Go to tliy rest." 

At Funk's minute guns were fired, bells tolled, and singing 
by a choir of ladies contributed with mournful efiect to the 
occasion. 

At Atlanta the usual badges and drapery of sorrow were 
displayed. Thousands assembled, and minute guns were fired. 
The interest there, as at all other stations, was intense. 



219 

At Lincoln, (named after Abraham Lincoln,) the depot was 
handsomely draped. Ladies, dressed in white and black, were 
singing. Tlie train passed under a handsomely constructed 
arch, on each side of winch was a picture of the deceased Presi- 
dent, with the motto, " With malice to none; with charity for 
all." 

At Elkhart men stood with uncovered heads, and the ladies 
waved flags. The depot was handsomely draped. They passed 
under another arch with flags, mourning drapery, and ever- 
greens. 

At Williamsville the houses were draped, and there were 
many little flags and portraits. The train passed a beautiful 
arch, with the inscription, " He has fulfilled his mission." 

FUNERAL CEREMONIES AND BURIAL AT SPRINGFIELD. 

The mortal remains of Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth Pres- 
ident of the United States, arrived in Springfield, the capital 
of Illinois, on Wednesday morning, the 3d of May, 1865. On 
leaving, four years and three months previous, to assume the 
solemn responsibilities of the Presidency, he said to his friends 
gathered around him at the moment of his departure : 

One who has never been placed in a like position cannot understand my 
feelings at this hour, nor the oppressive sadness I feel at this parting. For 
more than twenty -five years I have lived among you, and during that time I 
have received nothing but kindness at your hands. Here the most cherished 
ties of earth were assumed. Here my children were born, and here one of 
them lies buried. To you, my friends, I owe all that I have, all that I am. 
All the strange, checkered past seems to crowd now upon my mind. To-day I 
must leave you. I go to assume a task more difficult than that which devolved 
upon Washington. Unless the great God who assisted him shall be with me, I 
cannot prevail ; but if the same Omniscient mind and the same Almighty arm 
that directed and protected him shall guide and support me, I shall not fail ; I 
shall succeed. Let us pray that the God of our fathers may not forsake us 
now. To Him I commend you all. Permit me to ask that, with equal sincer- 
ity and faith, you will invoke His wisdom and guidance for me. With these 
few words I must leave you ; for how long I know not. Friends, one and all, 
I must now bid you an afi'ectionate farewell. 

President Lincoln, having fulfilled his great mission in the 
salvation of his country, and in giving freedom to four millions 
of immortal beings, and having passed through, as the ruler of 



220 

a great nation, the most eventful scenes in human history, was 
returned, all that was mortal of him, to his neighbors and 
friends, to receive the last mournful funeral honors. It was 
beautifully appropriate that his dust should sleep in the spot 
he loved so well, and among those with whom he had lived so 
long, and to whom the sacred associations of friendsliip were 
so strong and precious. Never did a conqueror, in the hour of 
his proudest triumph, receive such proof of the devotion of a 
nation, as that which was accorded to the remains of the mar- 
tyred President on their way to be deposited in their last rest- 
ing place. 

If the feelings of sorrow on the part of the people have been 
deep and real elsewhere, they were even more so in the late 
President's State and home. Here his virtues were appreci- 
ated, and the struggles by whicli he so worthily rose to such 
distinction, as well as the difficulties with which he had to con- 
tend through four years of the most stupendous war, were fully 
understood. Here were those who never lost faith in the pilot 
at the helm, even when the storm of war beat most violently 
about the " Ship of State." Here he always received sympa- 
thy and encouragement from tliose who knew him best. Thou- 
sands who loved the man for his virtues, and the cause of which 
he was the noble champion, wept at the ruin which the assassin 
had wrought. 

These affectionate and mutual attachments between the late 
President and his friends at home found a fitting expression in 
the following touching and beautiful poem, written by Rev. Dr. 
Allen, of Northampton, Massachusetts, for the reception and 
burial of the remains at Springfield. It is entitled, " Spring- 
field's ^Vr>i-",ine to Lincoln :" 



LiiTCOLN ! thy Country's Father, hail ! 
We bid thee welcome, but bewail : 
Welcome unto thy chosen home ; 
Triumphant, glorious, dost thou come. 

Before the rebels struck the blow 
That laid thee in a moment low, 
God gave thy wish: it was to see 
Our Union safe, our country free. 



221 

A country where the Gospel truth 
Shall reach the hearts of age and youth, 
And move unchain'd in majesty, 
A model land of libertj' ! 

When Jacob's bones, from Egypt borne, 
Regain'd their home, the people mourn. 
Great mourning then at Ephron's cave. 
Both Abraham's and Isaac's grave. 

Far greater is the mourning now ; 
Our land one emblem wide of woe; 
And v/here thy coffin car appears, 
Do not the people throng in tears ? 

Thy triumph of a thousand miles. 
Like eastern conqueror With his spoils — 
A million hearts thy captives led, 
All weeping for their chieftain dead. 

Thy chariot, moved with eagle's speed, 
Without the aid of prancing steed. 
Has brought thee to thy destined tomb ; 
Springfield, thy home, will give thee room. 

Lincoln, the martyr, welcome home ! 
What lessons blossom on thy tomb ! 
In God's pure truth and law delight; 
With firm, unwavering soul do right. 

Be condescending, kind, and just; 
In God's wise counsels put thy trust ; 
Let no proud soul e'er dare rebel. 
Moved by vile passions sprung from hell. 

Come, sleep with us in sweet repose 
Till we, as Christ from death aro-se, 
Shall in His glorious image rise 
To dwell with Him beyond the skies. 

Amid the profound silence and solemnity of tens of thousands 
of people, the funeral train of nine cars, draped in mourning, 
arrived, and the remains were conve3'ed to an elegant hearse, 
covered with emblems of grief, to the Capitol, where they were 
laid in state. 

The remains of President Lincoln were received by the com- 
mittee of reception, and the procession formed in the following 
order: Brigadier General Cooke and staff, military escort, 



222 

Major General Hooker and staff, guard of honor, relatives and 
friends in carriages; the Illinois delegation from Washington; 
Senators and Representatives of the Congress of the United 
States, including their Sergeant-at-Arms and Speaker Colfax; 
Illinois State Legislature; Governors of the different States; 
delegations from Kentucky, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, and 
Kansas; Chicago Committee of Reception, Judges of different 
courts, clergy, officers of the army and navy, firemen, citizens 
generally, colored citizens, &g., and marched with slow and 
solemn tread to the State House. 

On arriving at the Hall of Representatives, the coffin was 
placed upon the catafalque, resting on the dais underneath the 
canopy, and opened by the embalmer; after which the guard of 
honor took their stations around the remains. The coffin, 
when opened, revealed the marked and well-known features of 
the noble dead, which " wore a calm expression," and had it 
not been for a slight discoloration of the face it would have 
appeared as though the martyr had " fallen into a quiet sleep." 

The scene inside the Hall was most solemn and impressive; 
the elegance and appropriateness of the decoration, the wreaths 
of evergreens that encircled the columns, the portraits that 
hung upon the walls, the rich catafalque underneath a splendid 
canopy, the silent dead, the officers and guards, made up a sad 
picture. 

The coffin was placed on a platform approached by steps. It 
was surrounded by evergreens and flowers. The walls were 
adorned by the following inscriptions: " Sooner than surrender 
this principle, I would be assassinated on this spot," " Wash- 
ington, the Father; Lincoln, the Saviour." 

The buildings around the public square, and a large majority 
of the private residences in the city, were beautifully draped, 
manifesting the sorrow of the people at the tragic death of 
him whose remains were lying in state at the Capitol. 

The emblems of mourning everywhere displayed, the solemn 
strains of martial music, the slow and measured tread, the sad 
countenances of the people, all told of the grief which touched 
all hea^rts. Illinois received a murdered son again to her bosom, 
no less loving than when she sent him forth to the most dis- 
tina;uished honor. 



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During Wcdnesda)', it was estimated that seventy-five thou- 
sand persons, old and young, passed into the hall to view the 
remains, and a hundred and fifty thousand visitors were sup- 
posed to be present. 

THE BURIAL. 

The interment took place on Thursday, the 4th of May, and a 
procession, the largest and most imposing ever witnessed at 
the West, followed the remains from the Capitol to Oak Ridge 
Cemetery. 

General Hooker was Marshal-in- Chief, and while he was 
arranging the parts of the procession, a choir of three hundred 
voices chanted magnificently the grand old Pleyel's hymn, and 
as the last strains died away, the dense mass of humanity sud- 
denly crystalized into a mournful funeral train, wliich, with sad 
step, left the city, passed over the gently undulating suburbs, 
across the beautiful meadows, to the cemetery. 

The singing of a choir of full-chested vocalists as the corpse 
was borne from the State House was grand and overwhelming. 
Slowly amid tears and sorrow moved the grand line. There 
were double and single starred generals who had won distinc- 
tion on many hotly fought fields. There was a long line of 
eminent gentlemen of the bench and the bar, and of the rev- 
erend clergy a great many of the chief ministers of the West. 

The pall-bearers were the Hon. Jesse K. Dubois, Judge S. 
T. Logan, the Hon. G. P. Koerner and James S. Lamb, S. H. 
Treat, John Williams, Erastus Wright, J. N. Brown, Jacob 
Brown, C. W. Mathews, Elijah lies, and J. T. Stuart, Esqs., all 
old neighbors of tlic President. These walked by the side of 
tlie hearse. The various escorts and delegations followed in 
their order. 

Thus were the remains of Abraham Lincoln, the late Presi- 
dent, borne to his l)urial place by his neighbors and friends, 
and the vast concourse of mourners from all parts of the coun- 
try. 

Oak Ridge Cemetery, if it has not the grandeur of Green- 
wood or Mount Auburn, is yet a beautiful resting place for the 
dead, covering an area of thirty-eight acres. Nature made the 



224 

spot beautiful, and the artificial landscaping has been made 
with much taste and skill, in conformit}^ with the natural out- 
lines. The original growth of small oaks still stands, and there 
are a score of towering elms along the banks of the brook 
which flows across the southern side. This stream winds sinu- 
ously at the bottom of a deep cut or ravine, which is inter- 
sected on either side by smaller ravines. 

The vault where the President has been laid is on the left 
bank of the stream, forty rods from the entrance. It is built 
of the hard, white limestone found in this vicinity, and the door 
is an immense slab of the same, swung on massive hinges, be- 
hind which is a heavy one of grated iron, through which may be 
viewed the coffin within the tomb The road from the city to 
the cemetery is lined nearly all the distance by residences, 
surrounded b}^ gardens and orchards, though a part of the way, 
on one side, it skirts the woodland. 

On the high bank above the vault there were thousands upon 
thousands of people, and on the hillside across the stream from 
the vault there were as many more, and then the narrow valley 
was overflown with " a sea of upturned faces." On the left of 
the vault sat the choir of two hundred voices, and on the right 
was the platform, upon which sat the clergy who were to con- 
duct the exercises. Facing the vault were the Congressional 
and Illinois Committees, Governors of States and other dele- 
gations, and nearer still the pall-bearers and family friends, and 
on either side of the door the relatives. The appearance of 
the audience seated in the God built amphitheatre was most 
imposing. The people had come to bury their chief! They had 
come to lay away their Father I Within the vault, ranged on 
either side of the bier, stood the guard of honor, one or more 
of whom had stood at the head of the coffin every minute since 
it left Washington. The roof and sides of the vault had been 
covered with black cloth. The stone floor was strewn with 
evergreen. The choicest offerings from a hundred flower-gardens 
covered the evergreen, and other flowers, wrought into symbols 
of religion and tenderness, covered tlie margins of the bier. 
The coffin, in a receptacle of plain black walnut and resting 
in the centre of its black bier, was also hidden in the beauty of 
flowers. 



225 



RELIGIOUS SERVICES AT THE TOMB. 

The services began with prayer and music. After the choir 
had sung the hymn — 

Unveil thy bosom, faithful tomb, 

Take this new treasure to thy trust, &c., 

the Rev. Albert Hale, who had been pastor of a Presby- 
terian church at Springfield for more than twenty -five years, 
and a warm personal friend of the late President, offered the 
following prayer. It is more a thanksgiving than a lamenta- 
tion, and the voice of the aged preacher was choked with tears, 
and many who had not wept before melted into tears : 

PRAYER. 

Father of Heaven, we acknowledge Thee as the author of our being and the 
giver of every good and perfect gift. Thou givest life, and Thou takest it away. 
The lives of men and the lives of nations are in Thy hands as the drop of a 
bucket. 

Father in Heaven, we bow down before Thee to-day, believing in Thy pres- 
ence and asking that with submissive hearts we may acknowledge Thee in the 
serious thoughts that press upon the millions to-day. Father in Heaven, we 
thank Thee that Thou didst give to this nation Thy servant, so mysteriously 
and maliciously taken from us. We acknowledge Thy hand in all these provi- 
dences which Thou hast suffered from time to time to unfold themselves, by 
which we have been blessed with his private and public influence. We thank 
Thee, Father oT Heaven, that Thou didst give him to this people, and that he 
was raised to a position of power and authority, and that through him Thou 
hast led them through storm and strife to the present hopeful condition of our 
public affairs. 

And now, Father in Heaven, we bow to that stroke by wliich, suddenly, and 
contrary to our desires and expectations, he is taken from the high place where 
he stood, and we are now called upon to deposit his remains in the grave'. 

Father in Heaven, we mourn before Thee ; our hearts bow in grief and in 
Borrow unto Thy stroke, but he helped us to say, " It is the Lord, let him do 
•what seemeth good for us." And we do entreat Thee, Father in Heaven, to re- 
member especially the bereaved widow and family. We pray that in this hour 
of their trial God will give to them those blessings that they need, and so open 
the fountains of Divine consolation that they in their grief shall make this 
event not only a sorrow, but, under God, the opening day of numberless bless- 
ings. To Thee we commit them and all personal relatives who mourn in con- 
sequence of this distressing event, and. Father in Heaven, to Thee we commit 
15 



226 

the people of the city and of the State in which he has grown up, whose affec- 
tion he holds to-day in his death, stronger than in the most powerful moment 
of his life. 

Merciful God, bless us, and, we pray Thee, help us to cherish the memory of 
his life, and the worth of the high example he has shown us. Sanctify the 
event to all in public offices; may they learn wisdom from that example, and 
study to follow in the steps of him whom Thou hast taken away. We do pray 
and beseech Thee to grant that the high purpose for which he lived, and in 
which, by the blessing of God, he had so far succeeded, may be carried to a 
completion, and the time soon come when the good in heaven and on earth 
shall unite in shouts of joy and praise to the everlasting God. And, God, 
we thank Thee for that other example which he set us, in a steady adherence 
to truth, a love of freedom, and opposition to wrong, and injustice, and slavery; 
and we pray that God will grant that the policy of our Government touching 
these great issues may be successfully carried through, when not a slave shall 
clank his shackles in the land, and not a soul be found that will not rejoice 
in universal freedom, in righteousness established, in pure religion revived, 
in Christ manifested in His glory and reigning with power in the hearts of 
this nation. 

We mourn in sorrow to-day, yet we would rejoice in that "nor life, nor 
death, nor things present, nor things to come " can check this consummation. 
Give us grace, we pray Thee, to plead for thy blessing upon all men through- 
out the land, and for the dawning of that day in which righteousness and 
truth, and freedom, and pure religion, and humanity, shall reign triumphant. 

God, our Father, give grace and wisdom to him who so mysteriously is 
called to occupy the chair of state, from which, by the hand of malice, he 
whom the country and the nation mourn has been taken away. Give unto 
him humility; give him wisdom to direct his steps; give him a love of right- 
eousness, and help him to cherish the freedom of the people, while he sits at the 
helm of the nation ; and may God give him, and all associated with him, grace 
to perceive the right, and to bear the sword of justice so as to serve the na- 
tion's welfare, and to redound to the honor of truth and the honor of God ; 
and may they conduct themselves patiently and courageously to the end. 

Our Father in heaven, smile, we pray Thee, upon the millions that have come 
out of bondage. Remember them, we pray Thee, our brethren, dear to him who 
is taken from us. May God grant that they may be able to act worthily of the 
privileges which Providence opens before them, and may all the people unite 
their prayers, their patience, their self-denial, so that these may come up and 
take their place in the nation as citizens, rejoicing in new-born privileges, and 
the rights which God gave, and which man cannot rightfully take away. 

Father in heaven, we ask Thy blessing upon all those who are endeavoring, 
to-day, to secure the public interest against the hands of an assassin, and to 
prevent the murder of those in high places. God, let Thy justice. Thy 
righteousness, and power, speedily rid the nation of those lusts out of which 
all these evils arise, and the Union rise up from out this great trial, and be- 
come a light among the nations of the earth in all future time. 

Father in heaven, Thou art just and righteous in all thy ways, holy in all 



227 

Thy doings; we are sinful and unworthy of our privileges, but thou hast not 
dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. Hear 
us and aid us in the services still to be performed here ; and accept us through 
Christ our Redeemer, to whom, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be glory 
everlasting. Amen. 

After the prayer the choir sang the following dirge, com- 
posed for the occasion. Music by George F. Root, words by 
L. M. Dawes. It was sung with much feeling and effect : 

All our land is draped in mourning, 

Hearts are bowed and strong men weep ; 
For our loved, our noble leader 

Sleeps his last, his dreamless sleep — 
Gone for ever, gone for ever, 

Fallen by a traitor's hand, 
Though preserved his dearest treasure, 

Our redeem'd, beloved land. 
Rest in peace. 

Through our night of bloody struggle 

Ever dauntless, firm, and true, 
Bravely, gently, forth he led us, 

Till the morn burst on our view — 
Till he saw the day of triumph, 

Saw the field our heroes won ; 
Then his honor'd life was ended. 

Then his glorious work was done. 
Rest in peace. 

When from mountain, hill, and valley, 
To their homes our brave boys come, 
When with welcome notes we greet them, 

Song, and cheer, and pealing drum; 
When we miss our lov'd ones fallen. 

When to weep we turn aside, 
Then for him our tears shall mingle. 
He has suffered — he has died. 
Rest in peace. 

Honor'd leader, long and fondly 

Shall thy mem'ry cherished be; 
Hearts shall bless thee for their freedom, 

Hearts unborn shall sigh for thee; 
He who gave thee might and wisdom. 

Gave thy spirit sweet release; 
Farewell father, friend and guardian, 

Rest forever, rest in peace. 
Rest in peace. 



228 

The reading of the Scriptures was by Rev. N. W. Miner. 
His selections were from different parts of the sacred oracles, 
blending the sad and the triumphant — the grave and the resur- 
rection. Then came a chorus — 

To Thee, Lord, &c. 

Rev. Mr. Hubbard read the last inaugural of President Lin- 
coln, delivered two short months before. 

FUNEEAL ORATION BY BISHOP SIMPSON. 

Bishop Simpson, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was 
invited by the citizens of Springfield to deliver the funeral 
address. His eminent piety, his outspoken and earnest loyalty 
in all his public ministrations, his commanding eloquence as a 
pulpit orator, his eminence in the Christian Church, and his 
long and intimate friendship with the late President, who 
always attended upon the Bishop's preaching when he visited 
Washington, made it peculiarly appropriate that he should 
speak at the tomb of the late President, upon the solemn lessons 
of the providential event. Tears and hearty and vocal amen 
responses testified to the pathos and power of the oration. He 
said : 

fellow-citizens of Illinois, and of many parts of our entire Union: 

Near the capital of this large and growing State of Illinois, in the midst of 
this beautiful grove, and at the open mouth of the vault which has just received 
the remains of our fallen chieftain, we gather to pay a tribute of respect and 
to drop the tears of sorrow around the ashes of the mighty dead. A little 
more than four years ago he left his plain and quiet home in yonder city, receiv- 
ing the parting words of the concourse of friends who in the midst of the drop- 
ping of the gentle shower gathered around him. He spoke of the pain of part- 
ing from the place where he had lived for a quarter of a century, where his 
children had been born and his home had been rendered pleasant by friendly 
associations, and, as he left, he made an earnest request, in the hearing of some 
who are present at this hour, that, as he was about to enter upon responsibili- 
ties which he believed to be greater than any which had fallen upon any man 
since the days of Washington, the people would offer up prayers that God 
would aid and sustain him in the work which they had given him to do. His 
company left your quiet city, but, as it went, snares were in waiting for the 
chief magistrate. Scarcely did he escape the dangers of the way or the hands 
of the assassin, as he neared Washington ; and I believe he escaped only through 



229 

the vigilance of officers and the prayers of his people, so that the blow was 
Buspended for more than four years, which was at last permitted, through the 
providence of God, to fall. 

How different the occasion which witnessed his departure from that which 
witnessed his return. Doubtless you expected to take him by the hand, and to 
feel the warm grasp which you had felt in other days, and to see the tall form 
walking among you which you had delighted to honor in years past. But he 
was never permitted to come until he came with lips mute and silent, the 
frame encofSned, and a weeping nation following as his mourners. Such a 
scene as his return to you was never witnessed. Among the events of history 
there have been great processions of mourners. There was one for the patriarch 
Jacob, which went up from Egypt, and the Egyptians wondered at the evi- 
dences of reverence and filial affection which came from the hearts of the 
Israelites. There was mourning when Moses fell upon the heights of Pisgah 
and was hid from human view. There have been mournings in the kingdoms 
of the earth when kings and princes have fallen, but never was there, in the 
history of man, such mourning as that which has accompanied this funeral pro- 
cession, and has gathered around the mortal remains of him who was our loved 
one, and who now sleeps among us. If we glance ait the procession which 
followed him, we see how the nation stood aghast. Tears filled the eyes of 
manly, sunburnt faces. Strong men, as they clasped the hands of their friends, 
were unable to find vent for their grief in words. Women and little children 
caught up the tidings as they ran through the land, and were melted into tears. 
The nation stood still. Men left their plows in the fields and asked what the 
end should be. The hum of manufactories ceased, and the sound of the ham- 
mer was not heard. Busy merchants closed their doors, and in the exchange 
gold passed no more from hand to hand. Though three weeks have elapsed, the 
nation has scarcely breathed easily yet. A mournful silence is abroad upon the 
land; nor is this mourning confined to any class or to any district of country. 
Men of all political parties, and of all religious creeds, have united in paying- 
this mournful tribute. The archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church in New 
York and a Protestant minister walked side by side in the sad procession, and 
a Jewish rabbi performed a part of the solemn services. 

Here are gathered around his tomb the representatives of the army and navy, 
senators, judges, governors, and officers of all the branches of the government. 
Here, too, are members of civic processions, with men and women from the 
humblest as well as the highest occupations. Here and there, too, are tears, as 
sincere and warm as any that drop, which come from the eyes of those whose 
kindred and whose race have been freed from their chains by him whom they 
mourn as their deliverer. More persons have gazed on the face of the departed 
than ever looked upon the face of any other departed man. More races have 
looked on the procession for sixteen hundred miles or more — by night and by 
day — by sunlight, dawn, twilight, and by torchlight, than ever before watched 
the progress of a procession. 

We ask why this wonderful mourning — this great procession? I answer, 
first, a part of the interest has arisen from the times in which we live, and in 
which he that had fallen was a principal actor. It is a principle of our nature 



230 

that feelings once excited turn readily from the object by which they ara 
excited to some other object which may for the time being take possession of 
the mind. Another principle is, the deepest affections of our hearts gather 
around some human form in which are incarnated the living thoughts and 
ideas of the passing age. If we look then at the times, we see an age of excite- 
ment. For four years the popular heart has been stirred to its inmost depth. 
War had come upon us, dividing families, separating nearest and dearest friends 
— a war the extent and magnitude of which no one could estimate — a war in 
which the blood of brethren was shed by a brother's hand. A call for soldiers 
was made by this voice now hushed, and all over the land, from hill and moun- 
tain, from plain to valley, there sprang up thousands of bold hearts, ready to 
go forth and save our national Union. This feeling of excitement was trans- 
ferred next into a feeling of deep grief because of the dangers in which our 
country was placed. Many said, "Is it possible to save our nation?" Some 
in our country, and nearly all the leading men in other countries, declared it 
to be impossible to maintain the Union ; and many an honest and patriotic heart 
was deeply pained with apprehensions of common ruin; and many, in grief and 
almost in despair, anxiously inquired. What shall the end of these things be ? 
In addition to this, wives had given their husbands, mothers their sons, the 
pride and joy of their hearts. They saw them put on the uniform, they saw 
them take the martial step, and they tried to hide their deep feeling of sadness. 
Many dear ones slept upon the battle-field never to return again, and there was 
mourning in every mansion and in every cabin in our broad land. Then came 
a feeling of deeper sadness as the story came of prisoners tortured to death or 
starved through the mandates of those who are called the representatives of 
the chivalry, and who claimed to be the honorable ones of the earth ; and as we 
read the stories of fi-ames attenuated and reduced to mere skeletons, our grief 
turned partly into horror and partly into a cry for vengeance. 

Then this feeling was changed to one of joy. There came signs of the end of 
this rebellion. We followed the career of our glorious generals. We saw our 
army, under the command of the brave ofiicer who is guiding this procession, 
climb up the bights of Lookout mountain and drive the rebels from their strong- 
holds. Another brave general swept through Georgia, South and xsorth Carolina, 
and drove the combined armies of the rebels before him, while the honored 
Lieutenant General held Lee and his hosts in a death grasp. 

Then the tidings came that Richmond was evacuated and that Lee had sur- 
rendered. The bells rang merrily all over the land. The booming of cannon 
was heard; illuminations and torch-light processions manifested the general joy, 
and families were looking for the speedy return of their loved ones from the 
field of battle. Just in the midst of tliis wildest joy, in one hour — nay, in one 
moment — the tidings tlirilled throughout the land that Abraham Lincoln, ihe 
best of Presidents, had perished by the liands of an assassin ; and then all the 
feelings which had been gathering for four years, in forms of excitement, grief, 
horror, and joy, turned into one wail of woe — a sadness inexpressible — an 
anguish unutterable. But it is not the times merely wliicli caused this mourn- 
ing. The mode of his deatii must be taken into the account. Had "he died on a 
bed of illness, with kind friends around him; luid tlie sweat of death been 



231 

wiped from his brow by gentle hands, while he was yet conscious; could ho 
have had power to speak words of affection to his stricken widow, or words of 
counsel to us, like those which we heard in his parting inaugural at Washington, 
which shall now be immortal — how it would have softened or assuaged some- 
thing of the grief. There might, at least, have been preparation for the event. 
But no moment of warning was given to him or to us. He was stricken down, 
too, when his hopes for the end of the rebellion were bright, and prospects of a 
joyous life were before him. There was a cabinet meeting that day, said to 
have been the most cheerful and happy of any held since the beginning of the 
rebellion. After this meeting he talked with his friends, and spoke of the four 
years of tempest, of the storm being over, and of the four years of pleasure 
and joy now awaiting him, as the weight of care and anxiety would be taken 
from his mind, and he could have happy days with his family again. In the 
midst of these anticipations ho left his house, never to return alive. The eve- 
ning was Good Friday, the saddest day in the whole calendar for the Christian 
Church — henceforth in this country to be made sadder, if possible, by the 
memory of our nation's loss ; and so filled with grief was every Christian heart, 
that even all the joyous thought of Easter Sunday failed to remove the crush- 
ing sorrow under which the true worshipper bowed in the house of God. 

But the great cause of this mourning is to be found in the man himself. Mr. 
Lincoln was no ordinary man. I believe the conviction has been growing on 
the nation's mind, as it certainly has been on my own, especially in the last 
years of his administration, that, by the hand of God, he was especially singled 
out to guide our government in these troublesome times, and it seems to me that 
the hand of God may be traced in many of the events connected with his his- 
tory. First, then, I recognize this in the physical education which he received, 
and which prepared him for enduring herculean labors. In the toils of his boy- 
hood and the labors of his manhood God was giving him an iron frame. 
Next to this was his identification with the heart of the great people, under- 
p'lnding their feelings because he was one of them, and connected with them in 
their movements and life. His education was simple. A few months spent in 
the school-house gave him the elements of education. He read few books, but 
mastered all he read. Bunyan's Progress, (Esop's Fables, and the Life of 
Washington were his favorites. In these we recognize the works which gave 
the bias to his character, and which partly molded his style. His early life, 
with its varied struggle, joined him indissolubly to the working masses, and no 
elevation in society diminished his respect for the sons of toil. He knew what 
it was to fell the tall trees of the forest and to stem the current of tlie broad 
Mississippi. His home was in the growing West, the heart of the republic, and, 
invigorated by the wind which swept over its prairies, he learned lessons of 
self-reliance which sustained him in seasons of adversity. 

His genius was soon recognized, as true genius always will be, and he was 
placed in the legislature of his State. Already acquainted with the principles 
of law, he devoted his thoughts to matters of public interest, and began to be 
looked on as the coming statesman. As early as 1S39 lie presented resolution? 
in tiie legislature asking for emancipation in tlie District of Columbia, when, 
with but rare exceptions, the whole popular mind of his State was opposed to 



232 

fhe measure. From that hour he was a steady and uniform friend of humanity, 
and was preparing for the conflict of latter years. 

If you ask me on what mental characteristic his greatness rested, I answer, 
on a quick and ready perception of facts ; on a memory unusually tenacioua 
and retentive ; and on a logical turn of mind, which followed sternly and un- 
waveringly every link in the chain of thought on every subject which he was 
called to investigate. I think there have been minds more broad in their 
character, more comprehensive in their scope, but I doubt if ever there has been 
a man who could follow, step by step, with more logical power, the points which 
he desired to illustrate. He gained this power by the close study of geometry, 
and by a determination to perceive the truth in all its relations and simplicity, 
and, when found, to utter it. 

It is said of him that in childhood, when he had any difficulty in listening to 
a conversation to ascertain what people meant, if he retired to rest he could not 
sleep till he tried to understand the precise points intended, and, when under- 
stood, to frame language to convey it in a clearer manner to others. Who that 
has read his messages fails to perceive the directness and the simplicity of his 
style ? And this very trait, which was scoffed at and decried by opponents, is 
now recognized as one of the strong points of that mighty mind which has so 
powerfully influenced the destiny of this nation, and which shall, for ages to 
come, influence the destiny of humanity. 

It was not, however, chiefly by his mental faculties that he gained such con- 
trol over mankind. His moral power gave him pre-eminence. The convictions 
of men that Abraham Lincoln was an honest man led them to yield to his 
guidance. As has been said of Cobden, whom he greatly resembled, he made all 
men feel a sense of himself — a recognition of individuality — a self-relying power. 
They saw in him a man whom they believed would do what is right, regardless 
of all consequences. It was this moral feeling which gave him the greatest 
hold on the people, and made his utterances almost oracular. When the nation 
was angered by the perfidy of foreign nations in allowing privateers to be fitted 
out, he uttered the significant expression, " One war at a time," and it stilled 
the national heart. When his own friends were divided as to vhat steps should 
be taken as to slavery, that simple utterance, " I will save the Union, if I can, 
with slavery ; if not, slavery must perish, for the Union must be preserved," 
became the rallying word. Men felt the struggle was for the Union, and all 
other questions must be subsidiary. 

But, after all, by the acts of a man shall his fame be perpetuated. What are 
his acts ? Much praise is due to the men who aided him. He called able 
councillors around him — some of whom have displayed the highest order of 
talent united with the purest and most devoted patriotism. He summoned able 
generals into the field — men who have borne the sword as bravely as ever any 
human arm has borne it. He had the aid of prayerful and thoughtful men 
everywhere. But, under his own guiding hands, wise counsels were combined 
and great movements conducted. 

Turn towards the different departments. We had an unorganized militia, a 
mere skeleton army ; yet, under his care, that army has been enlarged into a 
force which, for skill, intelligence, efficiency, and bravery, surpasses any which 



233 

the world had ever seen. Before its veterans the fame of even the renowned 
veterans of Napoleon shall pale, [applause.] and the mothers and sisters on 
these hill-sides, and all over the land, shall take to their arms again braver 
eons and brothers than ever fought in European wars. The reason is obvious. 
Money, or a desire for fame, collected those armies, or they were rallied to sus- 
tain favorite thrones or dynasties ; but the armies he called into being fought 
for liberty, for the Union, and for the right of self-government ; and many of 
them felt that the battles they won were for humanity everywhere and for all 
time ; for I believe that God has not suffered this terrible rebellion to come 
upon our land merely as a chastisement to us, or as a lesson to our age. There 
are moments which involve in themselves eternities. There are instants 
which seem to contain germs which shall develop and bloom forever. 
Such a moment came in the tide of time to our land, when a question must 
be settled which affected all the earth. The contest was for human free- 
dom — not for this republic merely, not for the Union simply, but to decide 
whether the people, as a people, in their entire majesty, were destined to be 
the government, or whether they were to be subject to tyrants or aristocrats, 
or to class rule of any kind. This is the great question for which we have 
been fighting, and its decision is at hand, and the result of the contest will 
affect the ages to come. If successful, republics will spread in spite of mon- 
archs, all over this earth. [Exclamations of " Amen," " Thank God."] 

I turn from the army to the navy. What was it when the war commenced ? 
Now we have our ships-of-war at home and abroad, to guard privateers in for- 
eign sympathizing ports, as well as to care for every part of our own coast. 
They have taken forts that military men said could not be taken, and a brave 
admiral, for the first time in the world's history lashed himself to the mast, 
there to remain as long as he had a particle of skill or strength to watch over 
his ship, while it engaged in the perilous contest of taking the strong forts of 
the rebels. 

Then, again, I turn to the Treasury Department. Whore should the money 
come from? Wise men predicted ruin, but our national credit has been main- 
tained, and our currency is safer to-day than it ever was before. Not only so, 
but through our national bonds, if properly used, we shall have a permanent 
basis for our currency, and an investment so desirable for capitalists of other 
nations that, under the laws of trade, I believe the centre of exchange will 
speedily be transferred from England to the United States. 

But the great act of the mighty chieftain, on which his fame shall rest long 
after his frame shall moulder away, is that of giving freedom to a race. We 
have all been taught to revere the sacred characters. Among them Moses 
stands pre-eminently high. He received the law from God, and his name is 
honored among the hosts of heaven. Was not his greatest act the delivering 
of three millions of his kindred out of bondage? Yet we may assert that 
Abraham Lincoln, by his proclamation, liberated more enslaved people than 
ever Moses set free, and those not of his kindred or his race. Such a power, or 
such an opportunity, God has seldom given to man. When other events shall 
have been forgotten ; when this world shall have become a network of repub- 
lics; when everv throne shall be swept from the face of the earth: when 



234 

literature shall enlighten all minds ; when the claims of humanity shall be 
recognized everywhere, this act shall still be conspicuous on the pages of 
history. We are thankful that God gave to Abraham Lincoln the decision and 
wisdom and grace to issue that proclamation, which stands high above all other 
papers which have been penned by uninspired men. 

Abraham Lincoln was a good man. He was known as an honest, temperate, 
forgiving man, a just man, a man of noble heart in every way. As to his 
religious experience, I cannot speak definitely, because I was not privileged to 
know much of his private sentiments. My acquaintance with him did not 
give me the opportunity to hear him speak on those topics. This I know, how- 
ever, he read the Bible frequently ; loved it for its great truths and its profound 
teachings ; and he tried to be guided by its precepts. He believed in Christ, the 
Saviour of sinners ; and I think he was sincere in trying to bring his life into 
harmony with the principles of revealed religion. Certainly if there ever was 
a man who illustrated some of the principles of pure religion, that man was our 
departed President. Look over all his speeches, listen to his utterances. He 
never spoke unkindly of any man. Even the rebels received no word of anger 
from him, and his last day illustrated in a remarkable manner his forgiving dis- 
position. A despatch was received that afternoon that Thompson and Tucker 
were trying to make their escape through Maine, and it was proposed to arrest 
them. Mr. Lincoln, however, preferred rather to let them quietly escape. He 
was seeking to save the very men who had been plotting his destruction. This 
morning we read a proclamation offering $25,000 for the arrest of these men as 
aiders and abettors of his assassination ; so that, in his expiring acts, he was 
saying, "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do." 

As a ruler, I doubt if any President has ever shown such trust in God, or in 
public documents so frequently referred to divine aid. Often did he remark to 
friends and to delegations that his hope for our success rested in his conviction 
that God would bless our efforts, because we were trying to do right. To the 
address of a large religious body he replied, " Thanks be unto God, who, in our 
national trials, giveth us the churches." To a minister who said he hoped the 
Lord was on our side, he replied that it gave him no concern whether the Lord 
was on our side or not, for, he added, " I know the Lord is always on the side 
of right," and, with deep feeling, added, " But God is my witness that it is my 
constant anxiety and prayer that both myself and this nation should be on the 
Lord's side." 

In his domestic life he was exceedingly kind and affectionate. He was a 
devoted husband and father. During his presidential terra he lost his second 
son, Willie. To an officer of the army he said, not long since, " Do you ever 
find yourself talking with the dead?" and added, "Since Willie's death I catch 
myself every day involuntarily talking with him, as if he were with me." On 
his widow, who is unable to be here, I need only invoke the blessing of Almighty 
God that she may be comforted and sustained. For his son, who has witnessed 
the exercises of this hour, all that I can desire is that the mantle of his father 
may fall upon him. 

Let us pause a moment in the lesson of the hour before we part. This man, 
though he fell by an assassin, still fell under the permissive hand of God. He 



235 

had some wise purpose in allowing him so to fall. What more could he have 
desired of life for himself? Were not his honors full? There was no office to 
which he could aspire. The popular heart clung around him as around no 
other man. The nations of the world had learned to honor our chief magis- 
trate. If rumors of a desired alliance with England he true, Napoleon trem- 
bled when he heard of the fall of Richmond, and asked what nation would 
join him to protect him against our government under the guidance of such a 
man. His fame was full, his work was done, and he sealed his glory by becom- 
ing the nation's great martyr for liberty. 

He appears to have had a strange presentiment, early in political life, that 
some day he would be President. You see it indicated in 1839. Of the slave 
power he said, "Broken by it I too may be; bow to it I never will. The prob- 
ability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support 
of a cause which I deem to be just. It shall not deter me. If ever I feel the 
soul within me elevate and expand to those dimensions not wholly unworthy 
of its Almighty architect, it is when I contemplate the cause of my country, 
deserted by all the world besides, and I standing up boldly and alone and hurl- 
ing defiance at her victorious oppressors. Here, without contemplating conse- 
quences, before high Heaven and in the face of the world, I swear eternal 
fidelitj' to the just cause, as I deem it, of the land of my life, my liberty, and 
my love." And yet, secretly, he said to more than one, " I never shall live out 
the four years of my term. When the rebellion is crushed my work is done." 
So it was. He lived to see the last battle fought, and dictate a despatch from 
the home of Jefferson Davis ; lived till the power of the rebellion was broken; 
and then, having done the work for which God had sent him, angels, I trust, 
were sent to shield him from one moment of pain or suffering, and to bear him 
from this world to the high and glorious realm where the patriot and the good 
shall live forever. 

His career teaches young men that every position of eminence is open before 
the diligent and the worthy. To the active men of the country, his example 
is an incentive to trust in God and do right. 

Standing, as we do to-day, by his coffin and his sepulchre, let us resolve to 
carry forward the policy which he so nobly began. Let us do right to all men. 
To the ambitious there is this fearful lesson. Of the four candidates for Presi- 
dential honors in 1860, two of them — Douglas and Lincoln, once competitors, 
but now sleeping patriots — rest from their labors; Bell perished in poverty and 
misery, as a traitor might perish; and Breckinridge is a frightened fugitive, 
with the brand of traitor on his brow. Let us vow, in the sight of Heaven, to 
eradicate every vestige of human slavery ; to give every human being his true 
position before God and man ; to crush every form of rebellion, and to stand by 
the flag which God has given us. How joyful that it floated over parts of 
every State before Mr. Lincoln's career was ended. How singular that, to the 
fact of the assassin's heels being caught in the folds of the flag, we are proba- 
bly indebted for his capture. The flag and the traitor must ever be enemies. 

Traitors will probably suffer by the change of rulers, for one of sterner mould, 
and who himself has deeply sufi'ered from the rebellion, now wields the sword 
of justice. Our country, too, is stronger for the trial. A republic was declared 



236 

by monarchists too weak to endure a civil war ; yet we liave crushed the most 
gigantic rebellion in history, and have grown in strength and population every 
year of the struggle. We have passed through the ordeal of a popular election 
while swords and bayonets were in the field, and have come out unharmed. 
And now, in an hour of excitement, with a large majority having preferred 
another man for President, when the bullet of the assassin has laid our Presi- 
dent prostrate, has there been a mutiny? Has any rival proffered his claims? 
Out of an army of near a million, no officer or soldier uttered one note of dis- 
sent, and, in an hour or two after Mr. Lincoln's death, another leader, under 
constitutional forms, occupied his chair, and the government moved forward 
without one single jar. The world will learn that republics ase the strongest 
governments on earth. 

And now, my friends, in the words of the departed, " witn malice towards 
none," free from all feelings of personal vengeance, yet believing that the sword 
must not be borne in vain, let us go forward even in painful duty. Let every 
man who was a Senator or Representative in Congress, and who aided in begin- 
ning this rebellion, and thus led to the slaughter of our sons and daughters, be 
brought to speedy and to certain punishment. Let every officer educated at 
the public expense, and who, having been advanced to position, perjured him- 
self and turned his sword against the vitals of his country, be doomed to a 
traitor's death. This, I believe, is the will of the American people. Men may 
attempt to compromise and to restore these traitors and murderers to society 
again. Vainly may they talk of the fancied honor or chivalry of these mur- 
derers of our sons — these starvers of our prisoners — these officers who mined 
their prisons and placed kegs of powder to destroy our captive officers. But 
the American people will rise in their majesty and sweep all such compromises 
and compromisers away, and will declare that there shall be no safety for rebel 
leaders. But to the deluded masses we will extend the arms of forgiveness. 
We will take them to our hearts, and walk with them side by side, as we go 
forward to work out a glorious destiny. 

The time will come when, in the beautiful words of him whose lips are now 
forever sealed, " the mystic cords of memory which stretch from every battle- 
field, and from every patriot's grave, shall yield a sweeter music when touched 
by the angels of our better nature." 

Chieftain! farewell! The nation mourns thee. Mothers shall teach thy 
name to their lisping children. The youth of our land shall emulate thy 
virtues. Statesmen shall study thy record and learn lessons of wisdom. Mute 
though thy lips be, yet they still speak. Hushed is thy voice, but its echoes of 
liberty are ringing through the world, and the sons of bondage listen with joy. 
Prisoned thou art in death, and yet thou art marching abroad, and chains and 
manacles are bursting at thy touch. Thou didst fall not for thyself. The 
assassin had no hate for thee. Our hearts were aimed at, our national life was 
sought. We crown thee as our martyr — and humanity enthrones thee as her 
triumphant son. Hero, martyr, friend, farewell ! 

At the conclusion of the oration. " Over the Valley the An- 
eels smile" was suns:. 



237 

Rev. Dr. P, D. Gurley then arose, made a few remarks, and 
offered the closing prayer. The following hymn and doxology 
was then sung : 

Best, noble martyr ! rest in peace ; 

Rest with the true and brave, 
"Who, like thee, fell in Freedom's cause. 

The Nation's life to save. 

Thy name shall live while time endures, 

And men shall say of thee, 
" He saved his country from its foes, 

And bade the slave be free." 

These deeds shall be thy monument. 

Better than brass or stone ; 
They leave thy fame in glory's light, 

Unrival'd and alone. 

This consecrated spot shall be 

To Freedom ever dear ; 
And Freedom's sons of every race 

Shall weep and worship here. 

God ! before whom we, in tears, 

Our fallen chief deplore. 
Grant that the cause for which he died 

May live forevermore. 

To Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, 

The God whom we adore. 
Be glory, as it was, is now, 

And shall be evermore. 

Rev. Dr. Gurley pronounced the benediction, and the solemn 
funeral services at the tomb of Abraham Lincoln closed. 

As days of national dedication will the annals of history 
hold in perpetual record the closing days of April and the first 
days of May, 1865. Washington to Springfield has become 
the via sacra of the republic, marked by the fallen tears of a 
nation's love. Springfield, as the depository of Lincoln's re- 
mains, assumes classic rank with Mount Vernon, and these sa- 
cred sites become the foci of the national domain, where will 
concentrate the patriotic devotion of loyal America. Death 
has given renewed vitality to patriotism, and from the martyr's 
tomb springs undying loyalty, and devotion to the perpetuity 
and glory of the Union, sealed and made sacred by the sacri- 
ficial death of its martyred President. Abraham Lincoln. 



TRIBUTES AND SYMPATHY OF FOREIGN 
NATIONS. 



In Europe the assassination of the President of the United 
States produced the profoundest sensation and sorrow. Every 
court was in mourning, and the official and popular expressions 
of sympathy for the American g:ovcrnmcnt and people were 
universal. The solemn scenes there were scarcely less affecting 
and e^orrowful than here, and the chain of international friend- 
sliip between the nations of Europe and America was strength- 
ened and brightened by the great affliction which had fallen 
upon the government and people of tlie United States, 

GREAT BRITAIN 

gave the fullest and heartiest manifestations of grief. In Par- 
liament, on the reception of the intelligence, Earl Russell rose 
in the House of Lords and said: 

I am sure your lordships will feel entire sympathy with her Majesty, 
who has instructed me already to express to the government of the United 
States the shock which she felt at the intelligence of the great crime which has 
been committed. * «■ * All I can say is, that, in the presence of the great 
calamity which has fallen on the American nation, the Crown, the Parliament, 
and tlie poople of this country do feel the deepest interest for the government 
and people of the United States ; for, owing to the nature of the relations be- 
tween the two nations, the misfortunes of the United States affect us more thaa 
the misfortunes of any other nation on the face of the globe. 

The noble Lord concluded by moving a humble address to 
her Majesty, to express the sorrow and indignation of tlie 
House of Lords at the assassination of the President of the 

239 



240 

United States, and to pray her Majesty to communicate these 
sentiments to the government of the United States. 
The Earl of Derby said: 

In joining in this address, your Lordship will only follow the universal 
feeling of sympathy which has been expressed from one end of this kingdom to 
the other. I hope that the manner in which the news has been received in this 
country will satisfy the people of the United States that her Majesty's subjects, 
one and all, deeply condemn the crime which has been committed, and deeply 
sympathize with the people of the United States in their feelings of horror at 
the assassination of their chief magistrate. 

Lord Stratford de Redcliffe said : , 

The expression of our sympathy is not confined to numerous associations in 
every part of the country. It now assumes the more solemn character of a 
Parliamentary condolence, confirmed by the unanimous consent of both Houses, 
and crowned by the gracious participation of a sovereign whose sad acquaint- 
ance with sorrow is the strongest pledge of her sincerity. 

Sir George Grey, in the House of Commons, said : 

I wish it were possible for us to convey to the people of the United States an 
adequate idea of the depth and universality of the feeling which this sad event 
has occasioned in this country, that from the highest to the lowest there has 
been but one feeling entertained. Her Majesty's minister at Washington will, 
in obedience to the Queen's command, convey to the Government of the United 
States the expression of the feelings of her Majesty and of her Government 
upon the deplorable event; and her Majesty, with that tender consideration 
which shs has always evinced for sorrow and suffering in others, of whatever 
rank, [cheers,] has with her own hand written a letter to Mrs. Lincoln, [loud 
cheers,] conveying the heartfelt sympathy of a widow to a widow, [renewed 
cheers,] suffering under the calamity of having lost one suddenly cut off. 
[Cheers.] From every part of this country, from every class, but one voice has 
been heard — one of abhorrence for the crime and of sympathy for and interest 
in the country which has this great loss to mourn. 

]Mr. Disraeli said : 

In expressing our unaffected and profound sympathy with the citizens of the 
United States on this untimely end of their elected Chief, let us not sanction 
any feeling of depression, but rather let us express a fervent hope that out of 
the awful trials of the last four years, of which the least is not this violent 
demise, the various populations of North America may issue elevated and 
chastened, rich in the accumulated wisdom and strong in the disciplined en- 
ergy which a young nation can only acquire in a protracted and perilous strug- 
gle. Then they will be enabled, not only to renew their career of power and 



241 

prosperity, but they will renew it to contribute to the general happiness of the 
world. 

The address of the Queen, as moved in the British Parlia- 
ment, and referred to by Earl Russell, was forwarded to tlie 
Government of the United States, but has not, up to this 
date, (June, 1865,) been published in this country. It, and 
other addresses of condolence from European Governments, 
and from many public bodies and popular assemblages in 
Great Britain and on the Continent, are on file in the State 
Department at Washington. Written application was made 
to the Acting Secretary for copies of the one from the Gov- 
ernment of Great Britain, and one or two others, necessary 
to complete the chain of official addresses from Europe, as 
inserted in this volume, which application was to be referred 
to Hon. William H, Seward, the distinguished Secretary of 
State, when he should be able to resume the duties of the de- 
partment over which he has presided with such signal ability 
and success. Owing to the continued feebleness of the Secretary 
of State, who was to have been one of the victims of assassi- 
nation with our late honored and beloved President, and whose 
life but scarcely escaped the assassin's thrust, tlie application 
was not made. If these foreign addresses should ever be pub- 
lished by our national authorities, they will, doubtless, furnish 
most interesting and noble testimonials of international friend- 
ship and sympathy, and tend to bind the nations of the earth 
into closer bonds of peace and concord. 

On the receipt of the melancholy intelligence in the House 
of Commons, about sixty members of all parties immediately 
assembled, and signed the following address of sympathy to 
the American minister : 

We, the undersigned, members of the British House of Commons, have learnt 
with the deepest liorror and regret that the President of the United States of 
America has been deprived of life by an act of violence; and we desire to ex- 
press our sympathy on the sad event with the American minister, now in Lon- 
don, as well as to declare our hope and confidence in the future of that great 
country, which we trust will continue to be associated with enlightened fre<»- 
dora and peaceful relations with this and every other country. 

LoNCON, Ajiril 29, 1865. 
IG 



242 

The sacredness that shields the .silence of private sorrow 
will, probably, ever prevent the letter of the Queen of England 
to the widow of the late President of the United State-! from 
receiving publicity ; yet the fact, so fitly referred to by Earl 
Bussell in the House of Lords, and by Sir George Grey in the 
House of Commons, presents a beautirul lesson of the sorrows 
of our common humanity, and will, doubtless, bind together in 
closer and more affectionate friendship the two greatest Chris- 
tian nations of earth. 

In harmony with the unusual grief of the Crown, the Parlia- 
ment, and the people of Great Britain, Sir Frederick Bruce, the 
new Minister from the Court of St. James, arriving in this 
country just at the occurrence of the death of the President of 
the United States, also addressed a letter to Mrs. Lincoln, ex- 
pressive of his own sympathy and that of the great nation he 
represented, for the calamity which enshrouded her own heart 
and home, and the Government and people of the United States, 
with such deep and profound sorrow. 

The Manchester Union Emancipation Society of England, 
representing the feelings of the friends of general freedom in 
that country, sent also to the widow of the late President the 
following touching communication: 

To Mrs. Lincoln: 

Madam: It is not for us to invade the privacy of domestic sorrow, nor fitting 
that we should add to the sharpness of your grief hy characterizing as it 
deserves the deed which has deprived you of a husband and your country of its 
Chief Magistrate. We desire, however, to express our deep sympathy with you 
in this mournful affliction, and our earnest hope that you may be supported 
through the trial by the consciousness that your husband, though called to the 
helm in the midst of tempest and storm, never failed to respond to the call of 
duty, and that throughout a period of unparalleled difficulty he'has guided the 
affairs of the nation in a manner which will ever connect his name with all 
that is noble, magnanimous, and great in your country's history. His name 
will be associated with the cause of human freedom throughout all time, and 
generations yet unborn will learn to lisp his name as synonymous with liberty 
itself, and to connect the atrocious deed by which his career was closed with the 
expiring throes of that foul system of slavery against which his life was a 
standing protest, and the fate of which he had sealed. 

The Emancipation Society of London convened on the 29th 
of April, 1865, on the reception of the news of President Lin- 



243 

coin's assassination. It was a most magnificent and impressive 
demonstration. The hall is one of the largest and most beau- 
tiful in London. American flags, looped with crape, and droop- 
ing, and black drapery edged with white, gave a solemn and 
sombre display to the hall and scene. The building was crowded 
in every part, and multitudes were unable to obtain admission. 
The ladies who were present were dressed in deep mourning. 
Many members of Parliament and eminent citizens of the United 
States then in London were in attendance. The magnitude 
and representative character of the assembly, the solemnity and 
enthusiasm, the eloquence and ability of the speeches, surpassed 
all meetings which had been held in London for many years. 

Public meetings and organized associations in London and 
throughout Great Britain, united to give expressions of sorrow 
at the sad event. 

A great meeting of the merchants of Liverpool was held at 
St. George's Hall, on the afternoon of the 27 th of April, 1865, to 
express the sentiments of the people at the assassination of 
President Lincoln. The Mayor presided, and he and several 
leading merchants made speeches, denouncing the crime and 
expressing sympathy with the people of the United States in 
strong terms. A resolution expressing sorrow and indignation, 
regardless of all differences of opinion politically, was unani- 
mously adopted, and ordered to be sent to the American Minis- 
ter at London, to Mrs. Lincoln, and to Mrs. Seward. 

On the evening of the same day, and at the same place, there 
was another great meeting of the working* classes, at which 
similar resolutions were adopted. 

The Common Council of London and the American Chamber 
of Commerce in Liverpool adopted resolutions of sympathy 
and indignation. 

Large numbers of Germans in London also presented an ad- 
dress to Mr. Adams. 

The press of Great Britain, with singular unanimity, and in 
language of pathetic sorrow and passionate eloquence and 
indignation, expressed the deep public sentiment of that great 
empire. 



244 

The London Times, the great and influential paper of the 
kingdom, in its issue of the 27th of April, 1805, said: 

The American news we publish this morning will be received throughout 
Europe with sorrow aa sincere and profound as it awoke even in the United 
States. Deeds of such atrocity cover their perpetrators with everlasting infamy 
and discredit the cause they are presumably meant to serve. 

The Globe, (London,) said: 

Mr. Lincoln had come nobly through a great ordeal. He had extorted the 
approval even of his opponents, at least on this side of the water. They had 
come to admire, reluctantly, his firmness, honesty, fairness, and sagacity. He 
tried to do, and had done, what he considered his duty with magnanimity. He 
had never called for vengeance upon any one. In his dealitigs with foreign 
countries, and his expressions with regard to them, he had become to be re- 
markable, because, among American Presidents, he showed a justness of view 
and tone which was not common. 

The Express, (Loudon,) remarks: 

President Lincoln is dead. He has gone too soon, indeed, and yet, had it 
been earlier, how far greater had been our loss. He had tried to show the 
world how great, how moderate, and true he could be in the moment of his 
great triumph. He had lived to inspire a whole people with the spirit-of peace 
and good will towards that section of their race with whom they had so long 
contended in bitter warfare. 

The Dailij Post, (Liverpool,) April 27, 1865, published the 
following: 

In the hour of Northern victorj'- the Northern President has been martyred. 
His faithfulness to his sworn duty has cost him his life. If ever there was a 
man who in trying times avoided offences it was Mr. Lincoln. If there ever 
was a leader in a civil contest who shunned acrimony and eschewed passion it 
was he. In a time of much cant and affectation he was simple, unaffected, 
true, transparent. In a season of many mistakes he was never known to 
be wrong. When almost all were dubious he was clear; where many were 
recreant he was faithful. By a happy tact, not often so felicitously blended 
with pure evidences of soul, Abraham Lincoln knew when to speak, and never 
spoke too early or too late. 

The mortal part of Abraham Lincoln will be consigned to an honorable and 
long-remembered tomb ; but the memory of his statesmanshij), translucent 
in the highest degree, above the average, and openly faithful, more than 
almost any of this age has witnessed, to fact and right, will live in the hearts 
and minds of the whole Anglo-Saxon race as one of the noblest examples of 
that race's highest qualities. Add to all this that Abraham Lincoln was the 



245 

humblest and pleasantest of men, that he had raised himself from nothing, and 
that to the last no grain of conceit or ostentation was found in him, and there 
stands before the world a man whose like we shall not soon look upon again. 

The national journal of Ireland, the Irishman, said: 

History has written her last, greatest epoch in pure and noble blood — in the 
blood of Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States. 

Though we mourn for the death of Lincoln, we feel no foreshadowing of 
danger. * * * President after President may fall ; but the Nation 
lives — the Nation kui.es. Its fate is not in the hands of its governors, but in 
its own. Rulers do not make it ; it makes its rulers. This is the peculiar glory 
of democracy. This it is which makes a republic so stable. In our sorrow for 
the death of Lincoln we have confidence in the republic — we remember that 

LiBEKTY LIVES. 

The Weelhj Northern Whig, Belfast, Ireland, April 29, 1865, 
said: 

Abraham Lincoln, the saviour of the republic, is its martyr. A good and 
great man, but a few days since the noblest living type of Christian statesman- 
ship, has been struck down by the assassin's bullet. Happily the first part of 
his great work was finished before he was called away. 

He has fallen in the hour of victory, not of a victory of brute force, but of a 
victory gained chiefly by the operation of those great moral causes which move 
the world. He has died a martyr for .principles as noble as those for which 
ever martyr died. In his death we may, indeed, look for a fresh triumph to 
those principles, and we can only humbly bow ia submission to that wisdom 
•which guides and directs all things. 

FRANCE. 

In the French Corps Legislatif, on the Ist of May, M. Rou- 
ber. Minister of State, said: 

An odious crime has plunged in mourning a people which is our ally and 
our friend. The report of this crime has produced throughout the civilized 
world a sentiment of indignation and of horror. Abraham Lincoln had ex- 
hibited, in the sad struggle which rends his country, that calm firmness and 
indomitable energy which belong to strong minds, and are the necessary condi- 
tions of the accomplishment of great duties. In the hours of victory he ex- 
hibited generosity, moderation, and conciliation. He hastened to put an end 
to war and restore peace — America to her splendor and prosperity. [Marks of 
approbation.] The first punishment which God inflicts upon crime is to render 
it powerless to retard the march of right. The profound emotion and the deep 
Bympathy manifested in Europe will be received by the American people as a 
consolation and encouragement. The work of peace, commenced by a grand 



246 

citizen, will be completed by the national will. The Government of the Em- 
peror has caused to be sent to Washington the expression of a legitimate hom- 
age to the memory of an illustrious statesman, torn from the Government of 
the United States by an execrable assassin. By order of the Emperor I have 
the honor to communicate to the Corps Legislatif the despatch sent by the Min- 
ister of Foreign Affairs to our representative at Washington. It is conceived 
as follows : 

MlKISTr^T OF FoEEIGN AFFAIRS, 

Paris, April 28. 

The news of the crime of which M. le President Lincoln has fallen a victim 
has caused a profound sentiment of indignation in the imperial Government. 
His Majesty immediately charged one of his aides-de-camp to call upon the 
Minister of the United States to request him to transmit the expression of this 
sentiment to Mr. Johnson, now invested with the Presidency. I myself de- 
sired, by the despatch which I addressed you under date of yesterday, to ac- 
quaint you without delay of the painful emotion which we have experienced; 
and it becomes my duty to-day, in conformity with the views of the Emperor, 
to render a merited homage to the great citizen whose loss the United States 
now deplore. 

Elevated to the Chief Magistracy of the republic by the suffrage of his coun- 
try, Abraham Lincoln exhibited, in the exercise of the power placed in his hands, 
the most substantial qualities. In him firmness of character was allied with ele- 
vation of principle, and his vigorous soul never wavered before the redoubtable 
trials reserved for his Governmeat. At the moment when an atrocious crime 
removed him from the mission which he fulfilled with a religious sentiment of 
duty, he was convinced that the triumph of his policy was definitely assured. 
His recent proclamations are stamped with the sentiments of moderation with 
which he was inspired, in resolutely proceeding to the task of reorganizing the 
Union and consolidating peace. The supreme satisfaction of accomplishing 
this work has not been accorded to him ; but in reviewing these last testimonies 
to his exalted wisdom, as well as the examples of good sense, of courage, and 
of patriotism, which he has given, history will not hesitate to place him in the 
rank of citizens who the most honored their country. [Cries of " tres bicn, trcs 
bic7iy] By order of the Emperor, I transmit this despatch to M. the Minister 
of State, who is charged to communicate it to the Senate and the Corps Legisla- 
tif. France will unanimously associate itself with the sentiment of his Majesty. 
Receive, &c., &c. 

DROUYN DE L'HUYS. 

M. De Geofrt, Charge d' Affaires de France at Washington. 

The same letter was read in the Upper House, and received 
with equal approbation. Speeches by various meuibers were 
also made in both Houses. 

L' Opinion Rationale, La Siecle, VAvenir Nationale, and Le 
Temps have prepared an address, signed by the whole corps of 



247 

their contributors, wliilc all the papers publish a note, which is 
to receive signatures until the 8th, when it will be handed to 
Mr. Bigclow. This note is as follows : 

United from the bottom of our liearts with the citizens of the American re- 
public, we come to express our admiration for the great people which have 
destroyed the last vestiges of slavery, and for Lincoln, the martyr to duty. 

All the leading liberals signed the above. 

The assembly of the Evangelical Alliance of France voted 
addresses to President Johnson and to Mrs. Lincoln, to be 
signed by the pastors of the Protestant churches of France. 

A most significant and imposing demonstration, in Paris, was 
made by two tliousand students of the College de France. They 
proceeded to the American legation, and alarge committee having 
sheltered themselves under tlie American flag, read to Mr. Bige- 
low, Minister from the United States, an eloquent and sympathiz- 
ing address, to which he made a reply in writing. Mrs. Bigelow 
was present at the interview, which was so very full of kindly 
sympatliy on the part of the young Frenchmen that she could 
not refrain from tears. All Paria was moved to show how 
deeply it felt the loss which is sustained not only by America, 
but by the whole world, in the death of President Lincoln. 

The following letter of the Count de Paris, the grandson of 
Loui^ Philippe, and the present head of the Orleans family, is 
another testimony to the character of President Lincoln. It 
will be remembered that the writer, with his brother, Duke de 
Chartres, served for a year in the army of the Potomac, where 
they were much regarded by their brother officers. In their 
English exile since, they have kept alive those original sympa- 
thies which led them to enlist on our side. The letter is writ- 
ten from Twickenham, in England, and is addressed to Senator 
Sumner : 

Twickenham, May 5, 1865. 
Dear Sir: You stood by the death-bed of the good and noble-hearted man 
who was torn from the love and confidence of a great nation on the fatal night 
of the 14th of April ; you received the last breath of one on whom all the 
friends of America looked as the worthy representative of her free institutions. 
You will, therefore, understand that after reading the sad particulars of that 
terrible tragedy, I should feel anxious to confide to you my dcej) eiaolion and 



248 

my bitter grief. I should not have presumed to add my voice to the unani- 
mous expressions of sympathy offered by Europe to your fellow-citizens, if my 
personal relations with Mr. Lincoln, which henceforth will remain among the 
most precious recollections of my youth, had not added something in my eyes 
to the magnitude of that public calamity. My brother and myself will both 
always gratefully remember the way which he admitted us four years ago into 
the Federal army, the opportunity he then gave us to serve a cause to which 
we already felt bound by our family traditions, our sympathies as Frenchmen, 
and our political creed. 

Those who saw Mr. Lincoln during that great ordeal when everything seemed 
to conspire against the salvation of the republic, will never forget the honest 
man who, without personal ambition, always supported by a strong perception 
of his duties, deserved to be called emphatically a great citizen. And when the 
dreadful crisis during which he presided over the destinies of America will be- 
long to history — when its bloody track will disappear under the rapid growth 
of an invigorated nation and a regenerated community — jieople will only re- 
member its beneficial results, the destruction of slavery, the preservation of free 
institutions, and will ever associate with them the name of Mr. Lincoln. In 
this struggle with slavery his name will remain illustrious among those of the 
indefatigable apostles who fought before him and who will achieve his v/ork. 
But it will also be said of him that he secured the preservation of the Union 
through a tremendous civil war, without ceasing to respect the authority of the 
law and the liberty of his fellow-citizens ; that in the hour of trial he was the 
Chief Magistrate of a people who knew how to seek in the fullest use of the 
broadest liberties the spring of national endurance and energy. 

I beg you, sir, to excuse the length of this letter ; you know that it is in- 
spired by the feelings of my heart. 

Believe me, my dear sir, yours very truly, 

LOUIS PHILIPPE D'ORLEANS. 
To Hon. Charles Sumner, Senator U. S. 

The Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon, the Emperor of 
France, like the Queen of England, also addressed a letter of 
sympathy to Mrs. Lincoln, the wife of the martyred President 
of the United States. Thus the chain of womanly affections 
binds in stronger bonds of sympathy and friendship the 
greatest empires of the world. What beautiful tributes to the 
common humanity and to the genius of a common Christianity. 

In Nantes, France, a collection was made of a penny sub- 
scription for the purchase of a gold medal, to be presented to 
Mrs. Lincoln, bearing the inscription : " Liberty, Equalikj, Fra- 
ternity ! To Lincoln, tioice elected President of the United States, 
French Democracy grateful. Lincoln^ the honest man, abol- 



249 

Uhed slavery. re-esfahUshed the Union, saved the Bepiihlic, ivith- 
out veiling the statue of Lihertij. He icas assassinated on the 
Uth of April, 1SG5:' 

PRUSSIA. 

The death of President Lincoln was received with the great- 
est concern by the Prussian Government and people. Herr 
Loewes, one of the most active members of the Lower House of 
Deputies, on the reception of the news, rose and said: 

Abraham Lincoln has been taken away in the hour of triumph. I wish to 
assure the German Americans, as well as the Americans generally, that we 
glory in their glories and sorrow in their sorrows. It was the banner of free- 
dom he carried aloft. He performed his duties without pomp or ceremony, and 
relied on that dignity of his inner self alone which is far above rank, orders, 
and titles. He was a faithful servant, no less of hia own commonwealth than 
of civilization, freedom, and humanity. 

The House rose in token of assent to these admiring words 
to the memory of the deceased republican statesman, and an 
address, signed by a vast majority of the members, was sent to 
Mr. Judd, the American Minister. It is as follows: 

SiK: We, the undersigned, members of the Prussian House of Deputies, pray 
your acceptance of our heartfelt condolences on the heavy loss the Government 
and people of the United States have suffered by the death of the late President 
Lincoln. We turn in horror from the crime to which he has fallen a victim, 
and we are the more deej^ly moved by this public affliction, inasmuch as it has 
occurred at a moment when we were rejoicing at the triumph of the United 
States, as it was accompanied by an attempt upon the life of Mr. Seward, the 
faithful associate of his labors, who, with so much wisdom and resolve, aided 
Mr. Lincoln in the fulfilment of his arduous task. By the simultaneous death 
of these great and good men, the people of the United States were to be de- 
prived of the fruits of theis- p>rotracted struggle and patriotic devotion, at the 
very moment when the triumph of right and law promised to bring back the 
blessings of a long desired peace. 

Sir, you have been staying among us as a living witness of the deep and 
earnest sympathy which the people of Germany, during the long and serious 
war, have entertained for the people of the United States. You are aware that 
Germany has looked with feelings of pride and joy at the thousands of her sons 
so resolutely siding with law and right in this your war. You have seen our 
joy on receiving good tidings from the United States, and know the confidence 
with which we were looking forward to the victory of your cause and the re- 
construction of the Union in all its ancient might and splendor. The grand 



250 

•work of reconstruction will, we trust, not be delayed by this terrible crime. 
The blood of the great and wise chieftain will only serve to cement the Union 
for which he died. To us this is guaranteed by the respect of the law and the 
love of liberty which the people of the United States evince in the very midst 
of this tremendous contest. 

We request your good offices for giving expression to our condolences and our 
sympathies with the people and Government of the United States, and commu- 
nicating this address to the Cabinet you represent. 

KiGCGlVG &C 

THE MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF DEPUTIES. 
Berlin, April 28. 

The following is a translation of the official note addressed 
by the Minister for Foreign Affairs of his Prussian Majesty to 
Mr. Judd, the Minister of the United States at Berlin, relative 
to the murder of President Lincoln and the attempted assas- 
sination of Secretary Seward: 

Berlin, April 27, 1865. 

The Royal Government is deeply grieved by the news received by the mail 
yesterday, of the murder of President Lincoln and the simultaneous attempt on 
the life of the Secretary of State, Mr. Seward. 

In consequence of the so happily established friendly relations between Prus- 
sia and the United States, it falls upon the undersigned to announce to that 
Government the sincere sympathy of the Royal Government in the heavy be- 
reavement which has been inflicted by this crime, and therefore respectfully 
request Mr. Judd to transmit the expressions of this sentiment to his Govern- 
ment. 

The undersigned has the honor, &c. 

BISMARK. 

Hon. Mr. Judd, &c. 

In Berlin, the capital of Prussia, May 2d, 1865, was held a 
very remarkable service to the memory of Mr. Lincoln. The 
clergy of the city tendered their churches for the solemn cere- 
monies, and one of the largest and most attractive edifices was 
selected. The altar, on which two candles were burning, was 
veiled in black drapery. The pulpit, and the galleries in the 
neighborhood of the altar, were likewise covered in black. 
Over the pulpit hung two large silk American flags, from the 
tips of the stars of which depended black crape streamers. On 
the desks in all the pews lay programmes of the ceremony, 
containing the texts of the hymns and anthems to be sung, and 
printed on mourning paper. In the front pews on the south 



251 

side of the main aisle sat the chiefs of almost the whole of the 
diplomatic corps in Berlin, including Lord Napier, the British 
ambassador, formerl}' British minister in Washington; M. Bene- 
detti, the French ambassador; Count Karolyi, the Austrian 
ambassador; and the ministers of Russia, Sweden, Italy, Tur- 
key, Greece, Saxony, Hanover, &c. Next to these came the 
deputies of the Lower Chamber, the municipal councillors of 
Berlin, and many men distinguished in literature and politics. 
On the north side of the aisle sat tlie Americans, most of them 
attired in mourning. The English community was well repre- 
sented. 

After some minutes Mr. Judd, the American ambassador, and 
his family, together with Mr. Kreismann, the Secretary of Le- 
gation, all wearing the deepest mourning, arrived and took 
tiieir seats in front of the altar. A few moments later a gen- 
eral movement in the assembly indicated the arrival of Herr 
Von Bismark, in company with General "Von Boyeu, which 
two gentlemen had been deputed by the King to represent his 
Majesty at the ceremony. 

After a lesson and prayer had been delivered, the choir sang 
the beautiful anthem : " Sei getren his in den Tod." The Rev. 
Dr. Tappan, of New York, tlien delivered a powerful funeral 
oration on the deceased President Lincoln, whose foul assassi- 
nation has filled the whole civilized world witli horror. The 
singing of a chorale by tlic whole congregation, and a benedic- 
tion spoken by Pastor Vatcr, brouglit to a close the proceed- 
ings of this most remarkable religious demonstration, which 
will long live in the memories of many of the citizens of Berlin. 

There were more than two thousand people present in the 
church. 

RUSSIA. 

Mr. De Stoeckl, the Russian Minister to the United States, 
presented to President Johnson the instructions of Prince 
Gortchacow, the Minister for Foreign Affairs at St. Petersburg, 
of which the subjoined is a translation: 

St. Petersburg, April 16, 1865. 
Sir: The telegraph has brouglit us the news of the double crime of which 
the President of the United States has fallen a victim and Mr. Seward barely 
escaped. 



252 

The blow wliich has struck Mr. Lincoln at the very moment when he seemed 
about to harvest the fruits of his energy and perseverance, has been deeply felt 
in Russia. 

Because of the absence of the Emperor, I am not in a position to receive and 
to transmit to you the expression of the sentiments of his Imperial Majesty. 
Being acquainted, nevertheless, with those which our august master entertains 
toward the United States of America, it is easy for me to realize in advance the 
impression which the news of this odious crime will cause his Imperial Majesty 
to experience. 

I have hastened to testify to General Clay the earnest and cordial sympathy 
of the Imperial Cabinet with the Federal Government. 

Please to express this in the warmest terms to President Johnson, adding 
thereunto our most sincere wishes that this new and grievous trial may not 
impede the onward march of the American people toward the re-establishment 
of the Union and of that concord which are the sources of its power and of its 
prosperity. ' 

Eeceive, sir, the assurance of my very distinguished consideration. 

GORTCHACOW. 
His Excellency Mr. Stoeckl. 

BELGIUM. 

The King of the Belgians charged one of his aids-de-camp 
to visit Mr. Sanford and express the feelings his Majesty 
had experienced at the attacks made upon the President and 
Minister for Foreign Affairs of the United States. The Count 
of Flanders also sent one of his orderly officers to the Ameri- 
can Minister for the same purpose. The Minister for Foreign 
Affairs and the other members of the Cabinet have also lost no 
time in paying their respects to Mr. Sanford, and instructions 
have been forwarded to the Belgian legation at Washington to 
express to the American Government the sentiments of regret 
and reprobation excited by such disgraceful acts. At Satur- 
day's sitting of the Chamber of Deputies, M. le Hardy de Beau- 
lieu stated in the most sympathizing terms the emotion pro- 
duced in Belgium by the news of the tragic event, and recalled 
all the claims of President Lincoln to general consideration. 
M. de Haerne spoke in the same sense, with much feeling. The 
Minister for Foreign Affairs said that the Government fully 
agreed with the sentiments which had just been expressed, and 
that it had already conveyed its opinion to the Government of 
the United States and their representatives at Brussels. He 
added his sincerest good wishes for the recovery of Mr. Sew- 



253 

ard, whoso life he considered highly important for the definite 
pacification of the country so long desolated by the war, and 
whose prosperity was earnestly desired by all the friends of 
liberty. 

AUSTRIA. 

Addresses of condolence to the American people have passed 
the lower house of the Austrian Reichsrath unanimously, and 
the Austrian Government forwarded an address 

THE HANSEATIC REPUBLICS. 

Mr. A. Schumacher, the Charge d'Affaires of the Hanseatic 
Republics, paid an official visit to President Johnson, to assure 
him in their behalf of the universal sorrow and sympathy felt 
for the American nation, that the career of their beloved Presi- 
dent, Abraham Lincoln, should have been cut off so suddenly. 
At the close of his remarks, Mr. Schumacher handed to the 
President a letter from the Senate of Bremen, giving expres- 
sion to these sentiments. We subjoin it : 

The appalling news of the atrocious deed which brought to so sudden an end 
the life and labors of President Lincoln, has caused horror and indignation 
wherever it has gone, but perhaps nowhere in a higher degree than in our city, 
■ whose citizens have, ever since the first foundation of the American Union, 
maintained with its people uninterrupted friendly relations of commerce and 
personal intercourse, and which, at the present time, has more numerous con- 
nections, comparatively, with the great transatlantic Republic than any other 
State of the European continent. 

Indeed, the loss which the Government and the people of the United States 
have sustained by the hand of a fanatical assassin is felt the same as a public 
calamity in our midst, and it is this universal sentiment of deep sorrow and 
indignation which prompts us, the Representatives of the Bremen Republic, to 
express to your Excellency, as the successor of President Lincoln, the feelings 
of hearty sympathy with which we, in common with all our citizens, regard 
this severe visitation upon your country. 

May an Almighty God, who, in His inscrutable providence, has permitted the 
commission of this awful crime, avert a similar calamity from the United States 
in all future time, and may He by His richest blessings heal the wounds from 
which the Union is suffering, and crown by an early peace the patriotic labors 
in which Abraham Lincoln has died as a martyr. 

We avail ourselves of this mournful occasion to commend ourselves, and the 
Pvepublic which we have the honor of representing, to the friendly considera- 



2.54 

tion of your Excellency, and to express to you our sentiments of distinguished 
esteem and regard. 

J. D. MEIER, 
President of the Senate. 
Senate of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. 
His Excellency the President of the United States of Korth America, Wash- 
ington, D. C. 

ITALY. 

The Italian Chamber of Deputies was draped in black in 
mourning for Abraham Lincoln. The Minister of Finance 
moved, and the Chamber agreed, to send an address to the 
American Congress expressing the grief of the country and the 
House at Mr. Lincoln's assassination. It is as follows : 

To the President of the Congress of Representatives of the United States in 

America : 

Hon. Sir. : The intelligence of the assassination of President Lincoln has 
moved and profoundly grieved the Deputies of the Italian Parliament. From 
all the political factions of which the Chamber is composed, one unanimous cry 
has arisen, denouncing the detestable crime that has been committed, and con- 
veying the expression of deep regret and sympathy for the illustrious victim 
and the free people whose worthy ruler he was. This Chamber has unani- 
mouslj^ resolved to cover its flag with crape for the space of three days, in 
token of mourning, and has charged me to notify to you, in a special message, 
its grief, which is also that of Italy and of all friends of liberty and civilization. 
The news of the attempt made to assassinate Mr. Seward has inspired the Cham- 
ber with like sentiments. In readily, though sadly, fulfiling the mission with 
which I have been charged, I beg you will accept, Hon. Sir, the assurance of 
my sympathy and consideration. 

CASSINIS, 
President of the Chamber of Deputies. 

TURKEY. 

On Sunday, the 30th of April, the Greeks and Italian work- 
ingmen, to the number of several hundred, repaired in solemn 
procession to the residence of the American ^Minister to Tur- 
key, E. Joy Morris, all wearing badges of mourning, to express 
their sympathy on the death of President Lincoln. The com- 
mittee read a beautiful address, and prescnicd the American 
Minister with a framed portrait of Mr. Lincoln, crowned with 
laurel and decorated with the American and Greek flags. 
One of the most distinguislied Greek lawyers subsequently 



255 

delivered an address in Greek, wliicli was rapturously ap- 
plauded and full of grateful allusion to the United States 
and the memory of Lincoln. The love of these people for 
America, and their affectionate appreciation of the services 
of one of her greatest benefactors, touches one's heart to the 
core. It demonstrates what a strong hold the United States 
Government has upon the affections of the mighty nations. 
To these enthusiastic and affectionate demonstrations Min- 
ister Morris replied as follows : 

Hellenic Greeks of Constantinople : I receive with mingled emotions of grief 
and pleasure this imposing manifestation of the sentiments of the Hellenes of 
Constantinople toward my country and its illustrious chief, the late President 
Lincoln. 

I rejoice that the character and actions of that great man are so justly ap- 
preciated and so affectionately revered by the intelligent community you rep- 
resent. It is another proof that the Greek people are faithful to the traditions 
of their history ; that the same love of liberty which distinguished them in an- 
tiquity still exists, and that everywhere where there is a struggle between the 
spirit of liberty and despotism, their suffrages are on the side of those who are 
the champions of the natural rights of man. It is from your ancestors that we 
have inherited our passion for liberty. The example of Leonidas with his 
three hundred Spartans falling willing victims for the safety of their country at 
Thermopylae, of Miltiades and Tliemistocles on the plains of Maratlion and the 
■waters of Salamis, repelling the invaders of Greece, not by the force of numbers, 
but by the force of an invincible courage, is taught in our schools as a sublime 
lesson of love of country. 

Honor to a people wlio, after the lapse of twenty-five centuries, yet preserve 
in their hearts that sacred fire v/hich made their ancient heroes immortal ! 

The terrible struggle which is about terminating in the United States was a 
conflict between the two opposing principles of liberty and slavery. To promote 
the interests of the latter, an attempt was made to destroy the American Union, 
and to erect on its ruins a government the corner-stone of which was to be hu- 
man slavery. By the favor of Divine Providence the man most capable of 
meeting such a crisis was placed at the head of the nation. 

He was a man of unblemished purity of life, and of unspotted integrity, and 
he loved his race and country with equal affection. In defending the Constitu- 
tion he knew that he was defending an instrument of government in the main- 
tenance of which all mankind have a common interest witli us. He compre- 
hended, in its fullest proportions, the great part which God had given him to 
perform, and before heaven and earth he proved that lie was equal to the duty 
assigned him. 

At the moment when tlie sliouts of victory were rising from tlie fields of bat- 
tle, and when the flag of freedom was again being raised over the forts and 
towns from which it had been sacrilegiously lorn down four years ago, lie fell 



256 

beneath the murderous arm of an assassin. Fearfal crime to kill such a man! 
Supreme folly to choose such a moment for such an infamous deed ! He had 
accomplished his mission, he had saved his country, and had gained a place in 
the temple of glory, where he will always be honored as one of the greatest 
benefactors of humanity. The assassins of liberty and of its champions merit 
and receive an eternal execration in history. 

The Secretary of State, Mr. Seward, who had so ably seconded the efforts of 
President Lincoln, and who, by his diplomatic writings, had most wisely repre- 
sented the nation to foreign countries, was also destined to be a victim. We 
implore an All-merciful God that his life may be spared, that he may contribute 
by his sagacious intellect to the consolidation of the republic, which is now 
rising majestically, unimpaired in strength and unchanged in form, from a hun- 
dred fields of battle. 

In the name of the American people, Hellenic Greeks, I thank you for this 
generous demonstration of regard for my country and her saviour, and for your 
wishes that the Republic of the United States of America may continue to exist 
in the future as in the past, the boulevard of modern liberty and the pioneer of 
human progress. 

Adieu, Hellenes I and may the Greek and American flags, which float united 
above our heads, be a symbol of that fraternity of heart which exists between 
two people of the same sympathies and the same aspiradono ! 



MEETINGS OF AMERICANS IN FOREIGN 
COUNTRIES. 



LONDON. 



On the 1st day of May, 1865, the Americans in London held, 
in St. James's Hall, a meeting to give expression to their feel- 
ings in relation to the untimely death of the late President 
Lincoln. A large number were Englishmen, who desired to 
testify their sympathy and regard. The chair was taken by 
Hon. Charles Francis Adams, Minister of the United States. 
Among the distinguished gentlemen present were Lord Hough- 
ton, Cyrus W. Field, Mr. Morse, Consul of the United States; 
Mr. Ward, New York; Rev. J. Shaw, Boston; Rev. H. M. 
Storrs, Cincinnati; Mr. G. Ralton, Consul General of Siberia; 
Mr. J. Holmes Goodenow, Consul at Constantinople, and 
others. Minister Adams made an eloquent address, in which 
he said: 

The man who has fallen was immolated for no act of his own. It may be 
doubted whether in the whole course of his career he ever made a single 
personal enemy. * * * It was because Abraham Lincoln was the faithful 
exponent of the sentiments of the whole people that he was stricken down. 
The blow that was aimed at him was meant to fall upon them. It was a 
fancied short way of paralyzing the Government which we have striven so hard 
to maintain. It was for our cause that Abraham Lincoln died, and not his 
own. * * * Let us, then, casting aside all needless apprehension for the 
policy of our land, concentrate our thoughts upon the magnitude of the offence 
which has deprived us of our beloved chief in the very moment of most interest 
to our cause ; and let us draw together as one man in the tribute of our admira- 
tion of one of the purest, the most single-minded and noble-hearted patriots 
that ever ruled over tlie people of any laud. 

17 257 



258 

A series of resolutions were adopted, among which was the 
following; 

Resolved, That as loyal Americans, we have witnessed with peculiar pleasure 
the expressions of indignation and sorrow throughout Great Britain at the 
assassination of President Lincoln, and the cordial and hearty sympathy which 
has been extended by the public of this realm to the Government and people of 
the United States in their great bereavement and public calamity. 

ROME. 

Upon the receipt of the intelligence in Rome of the assas- 
sination of President Lincoln, a meeting of Americans was 
summoned at the rooms of the United States Legation. The 
meeting, held on the 28th day of April, and largely attended 
by American artists, sojourners, and visitors, was called to or- 
der by H. G. De Forest, Esq., of New York ; on whose motion 
the Rev. Edward S. Lacy, of San Francisco, California, was 
called to the chair. 

The proceedings were opened with prayer by the Rev. Mr. 
Lacy. 

A committee consisting of General Rufus King, United 
States Minister; Mr. H. G. De Forest, Mr. W. W. Story, Rev. 
Dr. Lyman, and Judge Charles Y. Dyer, was appointed. Du- 
ring the absence of the committee the meeting was ably and 
eloquently addressed by the Rev. Dr. Yan Nest, of New York; 
Rev. Dr. J. C. Stockbridge, of Boston; Dr. H. A. Johnson, of 
Chicago; Mr. Stansfeld of St. Louis; Mr. Stillman, United 
States Consul at Rome; George D. Phelps, of New York, and 
other gentlemen. 

The committee, through their chairman, General King, sub- 
mitted resolutions, among which were the following : 

Resolved, That in common with every true-hearted American, at home and 
abroad, we regard the loss of Abraham Lincoln as a national bereavement of 
unsurpassed magnitude, recognizing in him an able, upright, zealous, and con- 
scientious statesman, whose valuable life was consecrated to the public service, 
and whose tragic death has added the crown of martyrdom to the civic wreath 
which a grateful country had already placed upon his brow. 

Resolved, That we devoutly hope to be spared the additional affliction of be- 
ing called upon to mourn the loss of the great Senator whose able administra- 
tion of the Department of State during the trying ordeal of the past four years 



. 259 

had won for him the proud confidence and affectionate regards of his country- 
men, and the admiration of the civilized world; and that we humhly and hope- 
fully invoke the Almighty Ruler of the Universe to preserve a life so precious 
to America and to mankind. 

Resolved, That we tender to the immediate relatives of the lamented victims 
of this fiendish conspiracy and crime our most heartfelt and respectful sympa- 
thy in their overwhelming sorrow. May the God of the widow and the father- 
less bind up their broken and bleeding hearts ; and to his overruling care do 
we trustingly commit our beloved country in this hour of her extreme and 
sore trouble. 

Resolved, That in token of our respect for the memory of the illustrious dead, 
we will wear the customary badge of mourning for a period of thirty days ; 
and that the chaplain to the legation be requested to hold a special religious 
service at some convenient hour to-morrow. 

Resolved, That copies of these resolutions, attested by the signatures of the 
chairman and secretary, be transmitted to the State Department, to the family 
of our late President, and for publication. 

PARIS. 

On the reception of the news of the assassination of Presi- 
dent Lincoln in Paris, France, the Americans in that city were 
convened to express their sorrow at the great calamity which 
had fallen so suddenly upon their nation. At the suggestion 
of Rev. Mr. Lamson, a commemorative service was held at the 
American Protestant Episcopal Chapel on Saturday, the 29th 
of April, 1865, to which a sort of semi-ofiicial character was 
given by the presence of an aid-de-camp of Prince Napoleon, 
and by the draping of the church in American flags with crape 
streamers. This service was conducted by Rev. Mr. Lamson, 
assisted by Rev. Mr. Swale, assistant chaplain of the British 
embassy. Nearly all of the congregation of the American 
chapel was present, but its pastor (the Rev. Dr. Sunderland) was 
entirely unable to take part in the ceremonies at so early a pe- 
riod after the arrival of tlic afflicting intelligence. The Rev. 
Doctor found himself wholly unequal to the task of a public 
demonstration. He was a personal friend of the late Presi- 
dent, and pastor of the First Presbyterian Church at Wash- 
ington City, and for several years Chaplain of tlie Senate of 
the United States. He was in his pulpit, and elsewhere, the 
outspoken and fearless champion of the Government and its 



260 

righteous cause, during the great rebellion, and contributed 
largely to those patriotic and religious agencies and influences 
wliich preserved the life and nationality of the Great Re- 
public. 

The feeling shown on the following day (Sunday) in the 
American Chapel was far more touching than any formal mani- 
festation of respect. Dr. Sunderland, the pastor, by a violent 
effort of self-control, read the service ; but when he came to 
the prayer for the President of the United States — a diflFerent 
President from the one prayed for only a short week before — 
his voice broke down, and nearly every one in the little chapel 
in a foreign city shed tears — some sobbing outright. The Doctor 
finished the service with trembling accents, and resigned his 
place to the Rev. Dr. Palmer, of Albany, who preached an ad- 
mirable sermon, which had the effect of calming the troubled 
spirits of grief-stricken people. In this service was the ab- 
sence of the exultant hymns of praise which are usually sung 
during the taking up of the collection in the chapel, and which 
for the past two Sundays after the news of the glorious victo- 
ries were veritable songs of triumph. 

A meeting was held at the United States Legation, to con- 
cert upon some plan for publicly manifesting sympathy with 
their beloved country. Between seventy-five and a hundred 
American gentlemen were present. Mr. Bigelow was unani- 
mously named president. Mr. Slade, United States Consul at 
Nice, was appointed Secretary. The meeting was first ad- 
dressed by the Hon. Mr. Fogg, our Minister to Switzerland, 
who, being an intimate personal friend of Mr. Lincoln's, was 
several times entirely overcome by his feelings, and sobbed 
aloud. He started from Berne to come up to Paris to rejoice 
with his fellow-countrymen in view of peace, which Mr. Lin- 
coln's wise course had led us to suppose was near at hand, 
and was met by the cruel blow which has so fearfully smitten 
the nation. Several other gentlemen spoke, and the meeting, 
which was an occasion for mutual expression of sympathy, re- 
sulted in the appointment of a committee of nine gentlemen, 
who were charged with the preparation of a suitable address 
to President Jolinson. 



261 



NATIONAL THANKSGIVING TURNED INTO NATIONAL HUMILIATION. 

President Lincoln, on the evening of the 11th of April, 1865. 
said to his countrymen assembled at the Executive Mansion, 
" We meet this evening not in sorrow but in gladness of heart. 
The evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond, and the surrender 
of the principal insurgent army, give hope of a righteous and 
speedy peace, whose joyous expression cannot be restrained. 
In the midst of this, however, He from whom all blessings flow 
must not be forgotten. A call for a national thanksgiving is 
being prepared and will be duly promulgated." 

That proclamation was never issued. He whose heart was 
full of joy in the prospect of peace, and who was about to invite 
his countrymen to meet for devout thanksgiving to Almighty 
God for so great a blessing and the victories which had con- 
quered it, was smitten in death by the assassin, and the nation 
was bowed in deepest mourning. President Johnson, in view of 
the national affliction, issued the following proclamation : 

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OP AMERICA : 
A PROCLAMATION. 

Whereas, by my direction, the Acting Secretary of State, in a notice to the 
public of the seventeenth, requested the various religious denominations to as- 
Bemble on the nineteenth instant, on the occasion of the obsequies of Abraham 
Lincoln, late President of the United States, and to observe the same with ap- 
propriate ceremonies ; but whereas our country has become one great house of 
mourning, where the head of the family has been taken away ; and believing 
that a special period should be assigned for again humiliating ourselves before 
Almighty God, in order that the bereavement may be sanctified to the nation : 

Now, therefore, in order to mitigate that grief on earth which can only bo 
assuaged by communion with the Father in Heaven, and in compliance with 
the wishes of Senators and Representatives in Congress, communicated to mo 
by resolutions adopted at the National Capitol, I, Andrew Johnson, President 
of the United States, do hereby appoint Thursday, the twenty-fifth day of May 
next, to be observed, wherever in the United States the flag of the country may 
be respected, as a day of humiliation and mourning; and I recommend my 
fellow-citizens then to assemble in their respective places of worship, there to 
unite in solemn service to Almighty God, in memory of the good man who has 
been removed, so that all shall be occupied at the same time in contemplation 
of his virtues, and in sorrow for his sudden and violent end. 



262 

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of t'.ie 
United States to be affixed. 

Done at the city of Washington the twenty-fifth day of April, in the year of 
[l. s.] our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, and of the Inde- 
pendence of the United States of America the eighty-ninth. 

ANDREW JOHNSON. 

The day, by special proclamation, was clianged to the first 
Thursday of June, because the day aforesaid was sacred to a 
large number of Christians as one of rejoicing for the ascension 
of the Saviour. 

The day was universally observed, and these " solemn 
religious services to Almighty God in memory of the good man 
who had been removed " resulted in the richest blessings to the 
nation. The memorable events that immediately preceded the 
President's assassination, the Sabbath that succeeded the day 
on which his obsequies were performed in Washington, the 
rites and honors his remains received on their way to his final 
resting place, and the religious services around the tomb at 
Springfield, were consecrated days of patriotism and piety. 
They eminently developed the Christian element of our Govern- 
ment and people, as well as commemorated the virtues and 
public services of our departed President. 

When tidings came of the capture of Richmond and the dis- 
persion of Lee's army, the popular rejoicing found its appro- 
priate vent in acts of praise to Almighty God. The decora- 
tions of public buildings and of private houses, the orders of 
the War Department and the proclamations of the civil 
authorities, the editorials of political journals, and the resolu- 
tions of mass assemblies of citizens — all expressed the religious 
feeling of the nation in view of the manifest interposition of 
Providence for our deliverance. 

And when our sudden and crushing sorrow came, with one 
accord the people resorted to the house of God for relief and 
consolation in religious worship. Day after day the churches 
were thronged with serious assemblies. Day after day was 
God honored by the humiliations and the supplications of mil- 
lions throughout the land. And the long mournful procession, 
with the remains of President Lincoln, from Washington to 
Springfield, was not a mere funeral pageant, but one prolonged 



263 

religious service, in wliicli Jews and Papists united with 
Protestants of every name in acknowledging the hand of God. 

The religious sentiment is thoroughly woven into the 
character of the American people; and herein we have a noble 
encouragement from past religious labors and teachings, and a 
grand hope for the future. 

President Lincoln cherished in his inner life, and developed 
in his official acts and public efforts, the desire and purpose to 
diffuse and strengthen the religious element in all departments 
of the Government, and to bring all the interests of the nation 
under its controlling influence. To a great benevolent organ- 
ization, laboring for the religious good of our noble soldiers, 
he said, " You may have everything, and command the Adminis- 
tration to the extent of its ability and means, to help you take 
care of the religious interests of the army." To another he said : 
" Whatever shall be sincerely and in God's name desired for the 
good of the soldiers and seamen in their hard spheres of duty 
can scarcely fail to be blessed ;" and, " lohatever shall tend es- 
pecially to strengthen our reliance on the Supreme Being for the 
final triumph of right cannot bid be ivell for us." He also pro- 
nounced, in a letter to one of these Christian societies, this 
great, political, and Christian axiom which has so sublime a 
development in our national history : " Religion and good 

GOVERNMENT ARE SWORN ALLIES 1" 

God buries His workmen, but their work goes on. The 
death of martyrs to truth is but the day of their coronation, 
and their graves the fruitful earth from which blossom into 
fuller and riper forms the more abundant fruits of freedom ; 
and their translation to higher and nobler fields of effort is but 
the hour for surviving associates to renew their consecration to 
the imperishable principles for which they lived and for the 
vindication and triumph of which they died. 

Thus is it and thus shall it be with the death of Abraham 
Lincoln, the martyred President of the United States ! He is 
dead, but the principles of freedom and right which he pro- 
claimed and vindicated still live, and are marching on to a 
grand and perfect fulfilment. As the mourning millions of his 
countrymen shall review his life and contemplate his death, 



264 

or gather round his tomb, they will hear the echo of his words, 
spoken when he stood on the autumnal day of November the 
19th, 1863, over the graves of our martyred heroes, on that 
great battle-field of freedom, at Gettysburg : " It is for us to be 
dedicated hero to the unfinished work which they who fought 
here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is for us to be here 
dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these 
honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for 
which they gave the last measure of devotion ; that we here 
highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain ; that 
this nation shall have a new birth of freedom, and that govern- 
ment of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not 
perish from the earth ;" and those other words, uttered at the 
first hour, almost, of the great conflict, to the national Con- 
gress : " Having chosen our course without guile and with pure 
purpose, let us renew our trust in God, and go forward without 
fear, and with manly hearts, in the great task which events have 
devolved upon us." 

Abraham Lincoln is dead I 

•' In peace, great martyr, sleep! 
Thy people ■weep, 

But stop their tears to swear upon thy grave, 
The cause thou died'st for they but live to save; 
And the great bond cemented by thy blood 
Shall stand unbroken as it still hath stood. 

" Martyr of freedom ! may thy mantle rest 

On him who standest now to help and save ; 
While every drop that from thy wounds out-pressed, 
Shall bloom in flowers on treason's bloody grave !" 

FAVORITE POEM OF MR. LINCOLN. 

The following poem and the incidents connected with its re- 
production and recital will now have a new and touching in- 
terest. The artist, Mr. Carpenter, was an inmate of the Presi- 
dential Mansion for several months, engaged in painting the 
scene of the Proclamation of Freedom issued on the 1st day of 
January, 1863, and in which the President and his Cabinet 
Ministers — William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, Edwin M. 



265 

Stanton, Gideon Welles, Caleb B. Smith, Montgomery Blair, and 
Edward Bates — have a life-like rei>i'esentation. The poem was 
written in 1778, b}- Alexander Knox, of Edinburgh, Scotland, 
who died at tlie age of thirty-six years — incidents, it seems, 
unknown to Mr. Lincoln. This poem, so rich in sentiment and 
beauty, and which he repeated with such frequency and delight, 
unveils many of the mysteries of his marvellous life ; and the 
first and the last stanzas had a mournful fulfilment in his own 
sudden death. Mr. Carpenter says : 

I was with the President alone one evening in his room, during the time I 
was painting my large picture at the White House, in 1864. He presently 
threw aside his pen and papers, and began to talk to me of Shakspeare. He 
sent little "Tad," his son, to the library to bring a copy of the plays, and then 
read to me several of his favorite passages, showing genuine appreciation of the 
great poet. Eelapsing into a sadder strain, he laid the book aside, and leaning 
back in his chair, said : 

" There is a poem which has been a great favorite with me for years, which 
was first shown to me, when a young man, by a friend, and which I afterward 
saw and cut from a newspaper and learned by heart. I would," he continued, 
" give a great deal to know who wrote it, but I have never been able to 
ascertain." 

Then half closing his eyes he repeated to me the lines which I enclose to you. 
Greatly pleased and interested, I told him I would like, if ever an opportunity 
occurred, to write them down from his lips. He said he would some time try 
to give them to me. A few days afterward he asked me to accompany him to 
the temporary studio of Mr. Swayne, the sculptor, who was making a bust of 
him at the Treasury Department. While he was sitting for the bust I was sud- 
denly reminded of the poem, and said to him that then would be a good time 
to dictate it to me. He complied, and sitting upon some books at his feet, as 
nearly as I can remember, I wrote the lines down, one by one, from his lips : 

0, why should the spirit of mortal be proud ? 
Like a swift-fleeing meteor, a fast-flying cloud, 
A flash of the lightning, a break of the wave, 
He passeth from life to his rest in the grave. 

The leaves of the oak and the willow shall fade, 
Be scattered around and together be laid. 
And the young and the old, and the low and the high, 
Shall moulder to dust and together shall lie. 

The infant a mother attended and loved ; 
The mother that infant's afiection who proved; 
The husband that mother and infant wlio blessed, 
Each, all, are away to their dwellings of rest. 



266 

The hand of the king that the sceptre hath borne ; 
The brow of the priest that the mitre hath worn ; 
The eye of the sage and the heart of the brave, 
Are hidden and lost in the depths of the grave. 

The peasant whose lot was to sow and to reap ; 
The herdsman who climbed with his goats up the steep; 
The beggar who wandered in search of his bread, 
Have faded away like the grass that we tread. 

So the multitude goes, like the flower or the weed 
That withers away to let others succeed ; 
So the multitude comes, even those we heboid, 
To repeat every tale that has often been told. 

For we are the same our fathers have been; 
We see the same sights our fathers have seen — 
"We drink the same stream and view tbe same sun 
And run the same course our fathers have run. 

The thoughts we are thinking our fathers would think; 
From the death we are shrinking our fathers would shrink ; 
To the life we are clinging they also would cling; 
But it speeds for us all, like a bird on the wing. 

They loved, but the story we cannot unfold ; 
They scorned, but the heart of the haughty is cold; 
They grieved, but no wail from their slumber will como ; 
They joyed, but the tongue of their gladness is dumb. 

They died, aye! died; we things that are now, 
That walk on the turf that lies over their brow, 
And make in their dwellings a transient abode, 
Meet the things that they met on their pilgrimage road. 

Yea! hope and despondency, pleasure and pain, 
We mingle together in sunshine and rain ; 
And the smile and the tear, the song and the dirge, 
Still follow each other, like surge upon surge. 

'Tis the wink of an eye, 'tis the draught of a breath, 
From the blossom of health to the paleness of death — 
From the gilded saloon to the bier and the shroud : 
0, why should the spirit of mortal be proud ? 

This Memorial Record, so abundant in tributes of affection 
md honor to the late lamented President of the United States. 



267 

and so rich in lessons of patriotism and piety, lias a fitting close 
in the following 

HISTORIC APOSTROPHE. 

To the memory 

, of 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 

President of the United States of America, 

Who died a martyr to his country, 

Falling under the hand of a traitor assassin, 

On the night of the 1-lth day of April, 1865, 

The fourth anniversary of the beginning of the great 

WAR OF EEBELLION, 

Through which he led the nation to a glorious triumph. 

Just completed when the dastardly revenge of vanquished treason was wrought 

in this monstrous murder. 

The Great Republic loved him 

As its Father, 

And reverenced him as the preserver of its national life. 

The oppressed people of all lands looked up to him 

As the anointed of liberty, and hailed in him the consecrated 

Leader of her cause. 

He struck the chains of slavery from four millions of a despised race, and, with a 

noble faith in humanity, 

Raised them to the admitted dignity of manhood. 

By his wisdom, his prudence, his calm temper, his steadfast patience. 

His lofty courage, and his loftier faith, 

He saved the Republic from dissolution; 

By his simple integrity, he illustrated the neglected principles of its Constitution, 

and restored them to their just ascendancy; 

By all the results of his administration of its government. 

He inaugurated a Now Era in the history of mankind. 

The wisdom of his statesmanship was excelled 

Only by its virtuousness ; 

Exercising a power which surpassed that of kings. 

Ho bore himself always as 

The servant of the people, 

And never its master. 



268 

Too sincere in the simplicity of his nature to be affected by an elevatioii, 

The proudest among human dignities, 

He stands in the ranks of the ilUustrious of all time as 

The proudest exemplar of Democracy. 

While goodness is beloved 

And great deeds are remembered, 

The world will never cease to honor the name and memory 

of 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Monuments are about to rise at the capital of the nation 
and in various States and cities of the Union, to the life and 
memory of Abraham Lincoln, late President of the United 
States ; and on them will be engraven sentiments similar to 
those of the sublime apostrophe recorded above. 

But the best and most enduring monuments to perpetuate his 
life and illustrious services will be in the hearts of his fel- 
low-countrymen, OF THE MILLIONS HE EMANCIPATED, AND OP 
THE LOVERS OF LIBERTY IN EVERY CLIME AND THROUGH ALL 
COMING AGES ! 



INDEX. 



I. Memorable Days and Events preceding Ihe President's 
Deatli. 

Character and Popularity of the President, 5, 6 ; Second Inaugu- 
ration — Chief Justice Chase administers the Oath — An Open 
Bible — The Chapter — Sun comes brightly out, 6 ; Inaugural 
Address, 7, 8; Opinions of an English Statesman — Of the 
British and American Press, 8, 9. 

II. Visit of the President to the Army and to Richmond, and 
return. 

Conferences with General Grant, 11 ; With Campbell in Rich- 
mond, 9, 10 ; P>,eturn, 13; Speech on his return, at the White 
House, 14-17. 

III. President's Last Day on Earth. 

Its Incidents, 19-21. 

IV. Threats of Assassination. 

Proof of the same, 24-27. 

V. Assassination of the President, and his Dying Scenes. 

Incidents attending, 29-37 ; Announced by the Secretary of 
War, 38 ; Notes of the Physician when Dying, 39 ; Body 
removed to Presidential Mansion, 40; Autopsy, 41; Em- 
balmment, 41, 42. 

VI. Testimony in regard to the Assassination, and accounts of 
eye-witnesses. 

Major Rathbone's Affidavit, 42, 43, 44 ; Miss Harris's, 44. 
VII. John "Wilkes Booth, the Assassin of the President. 

Statement of Mr. Ferguson, 45-47; Government Reward for 
Apprehension of the Assassins, 47, 48 ; Capture and Death of 
the Assassin, 48, 49 ; Extent of the Conspiracy to Assassinate 
the President, 49, 50 ; President Johnson's Reward for Davis 

269 



270 

and other Leaders of the Eebellion, 50 ; Military Commissiou 
for the Trial of the Accomplices of Booth, 51, 52. 

VIII. Inauguration of President Johnson. 

Communication of the Cabinet to him, 54; Sworn into Office 
by Chief Justice Chase, 55; President's Remarks, 55, 56; An- 
nouncement of his Inauguration by the Cabinet, 56, 57. 

IX. Meeting of Senators and Members of the House of Repre- 
sentatives. 

Their Proceedings and Resolutions on the Death of President 
Lincoln, 59-61. 

X. Meeting of Clergymen — Their Visit to President Johnson. 

Proceedings and Resolutions, 63-68 ; Interview with the Presi- 
dent, and the President's Address, 69-73. 

XI. President Lincoln's Remains lying in State in the Presiden- 
tial Mansion. 

His Appearance in Death, 73; The Coffin, 74; Catafalque, 
75 ; Thousands of Visitors, 76. 

XII. Funeral Services at the President's House. 

Scene in the East Room, 77, 78 ; The Audience in the East Room, 
79, 80; Scriptures Read by Dr. Hall, 81-83; Prayer of Bishop 
Simpson, 83-85 ; Funeral Address of Dr. Gurley, 85-92. 

XIV. Funeral Procession from the Presidential Mansion to the 
Capitol. 

Its Description and Order, 93-101 ; Remains in the Rotunda, 
102, 103; Burial Service Read, 103; Guard of Honor, 104; 
Removal of the Body to the Cars, 105, 106; Order of Secretary 
of War regulating the Transportation of the Remains to 
Springfield, Illinois, 106, 107; Time and Arrangement desig- 
nated by Governor Brough and John W. Garrett, 107, 108; 
Names of the Guard of Honor and Committee who accompa- 
nied remains to Springfield, 109, 110. 

XV. Official Orders concerning the President's Death. 

Order of Secretary Stanton to the Army, 111, 112; Of Secretary 
Welles to the Navy, 112, 113 ; Of Secretary McCullough to 
the Officers of the Revenue Marine, 113; Of Postmaster Den- 
nison to Deputy Postmasters, 114 ; Of Mr. Hunter, Acting 
Secretary of State, to all connected with the State Depart- 
ment, 114 ; Of Secretary Usher to the Employees of the In- 
terior Department, 114 ; General Aleade's Order to his Army, 
114, 115; General Sherman's Order to his Army, 115; Feeling 
in General Sherman's Army, 115, 116; Obsequies in the Army, 
116, 117; General Hancock's Appeal to the Colored People. 



271 

117, 118 ; the General Court Martial, 118 ; Major Burnham'e 
Address, 118, 119. 

XVI. Action of the Diplomatic Body. 

Russian Minister's Address to President Johnson, 110 ; Address 
of the Swiss Consul, 120, 121; The President's Reply, 121; 
Expression of Sympathy from the French Minister, 121. 

XVII. Tributes of the States represented at Washington. 

Proceedings and Resolutions of New Hampshire, 123-125; Of 
Massachusetts, 125, 126 ; Extract of Governor Andrew's Mes- 
sage to the Legislature of Massachusetts, 126; Of Connecti- 
cut, 127-129; Governor Buckingham's Address, 129; Of New 
York, 129, 130; Governor Fenton's Proclamation concerning 
the President's Death, 130 ; Of New Jersey, 131 ; Of Pennsyl- 
vania ; 131-133; Of Ohio, 133, 134; Of Indiana, 134, 135; 
Governor Morton's Request to the Citizens of Indiana, 135 ; 
Of Illinois, 135-137; Of Kentucky, 137; Of Iowa, 137, 138; 
Governor Stone to the People of Iowa, 138 ; Of Wisconsin, 
138-140; Of Kansas, 140, 141; Of Missouri, 141, 142; Of 
Citizens from the Pacific Coast, 141, 142; Funeral Services in 
San Francisco, 142 ; In Denver, Colorado, 143. 

XVIII. Tributes of the Courts and Civic Bodies in Washington. 

United States Court of Claims, 145 ; Solicitor "Weed's Speech, 
announcing the President's Death, 145, 146 ; Response of 
Chief Justice Casey, 146, 147 ; Levy Court of the County of 
Washington, 147, 148 ; Expressions of the Bar and Grand 
Jury, 148, 149 ; City Council of Washington, 149, 150 ; City 
Council of Georgetown, 150, 151 ; National Democratic Asso- 
ciation, 151, 152 ; German Citizens, 152; Colored Citizens, 153, 
154 ; Reference to other Bodies, 154. 

XIX. Funeral Honors on the route from Washington to Spring- 
field. 

Ode on the Procession, by R. H. Stoddard, 155, 156 ; Apostrophe 
on the Procession, by Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, 156 ; Obse- 
quies at Baltimore, 156-158; Scene at York, Pa., 157, 158; 
Honors at Harrisburg, 158-160; Obsequies at Philadelphia, 
160-165; Funeral Honors in New York, 166-169 ; Bancroft's 
Oration, 169-174; Scenes between New York and Albany, 
179,180; Funeral Honors at Albany, 182-184; Scenes between 
Albany and Buffalo, 184 ; Funeral Honors at Buffalo, 184, 185 ; 
Ceremonies at Cleveland, 185-188 ; Funeral Honors at Colum- 
bus, Ohio, 188-191 ; Stevenson's Oration, 191-193 ; Scenes 
between Columbus and Indianapolis, 194-196 ; Funeral Hon- 
ors at Indianapolis, 196-199 ; Scenes between Indianapolis 
and Chicago, 200, 201; Funeral Honors at Chicago, 201-204; 



272 

Colfax's Oration, 20-1-218 ; Scenes between Chicago and 
Springfield, 218, 219; Funeral Ceremonies at Springfield, 
219-228 ; Bishop Simpson's Oration, 228-236. 

XX. Tributes and Sympathy of Foreign Nations. 

Great Britian, 239 ; Earl Eussell's and Earl Derby's Remarks 
in the House of Lords, 239, 240; Sir George Grey's and Mr. 
Disraeli's Remarks in the House of Commons, 240 ; Address 
of the Queen — Not obtained, and the reason, 241 ; Unofficial 
Address of Members of the House of Commons, 241 ; Queen's 
Letter to Mrs. Lincoln, allusion to, 242; Sir Frederic Bruce's 
Letters, 242 ; Letter of Emancipation Society in England to 
Mrs. Lincoln, 242; Emancipation Society in London, 242, 
243 ; Meeting at Liverpool, 243 ; Remarks of the English 
Press, 243, 244, 245 ; Sympathy and Tribute of the Govern- 
ment of France, 245, 246 ; Count de Paris's Letter to Senator 
Sumner, 247, 248 ; Allusion to the Empress's Letter to Mrs. 
Lincoln, 248; Action of the Government of Prussia, 249; 
Scene in a Berlin Church, 250, 251. 

XXI. Meeting of Americans in Foreign Countries. 

In London, 257; Minister Adams's Address, 257; In Rome, 258; 
Resolutions, 258,259; Paris, 259; Scene in the American 
Chapel, (Dr. Sunderland's,) 266; American Legation, 260. 

XXII. National Humiliation and Prayer. 

Proclamation by President Johnson, 261, 262; Observance of 
the Day, 262; Development of the Religious Element of the 
Nation, 202-264. 

XXIII. Favorite Poem of President Lincoln. 

Its Origin, 264,265; Recites to Mr. Carpenter, 265; The 
Poem, 265, 266. 

XXIV. Historic Apostrophe. 

Its Language and Truth, 267, 268. 







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